The War of Love
by CASE iN POiNT
Summary: ORIGINALLY ANIME BUBBLES'S STORY. Bring together an assassin and a spy who both don't believe in love and watch as their two worlds fall apart. They learn to pick up the pieces and find that love isn't all that bad...UxY OxS JxA
1. Beauty

**The War Of Love**

**by: Anime Bubbles**

Since the time of the beginning, war had never been truly wanted by anyone. Some, however, adored and worshipped war and the glories of combat.

Like those of the warriors, whose art of war had been perfected. They would come and attack without anyone knowing and ravage villages and towns, pummeling anything in their path.

But the art of war taking place in this story is the war between two souls, souls that refuse to back down no matter how battered and torn they had become.

Two souls that don't believe in love and deny the fact that they aren't all that different.

An assassin and spy who refuse to realize they had fallen in love with each other…

**834U7Y**

"It's an albino black sheep!" yelled a blonde-haired man.

His friend shook his head and barely grinned.

The blonde man shrugged and cocked his head to the side. "Close enough right?"

"Yes, Odd. Very close."

Ulrich always thought it amazing how someone with such a small brain could be such a dangerous fighter. Just give him a pair of daggers and he could slash his way through an entire army.

"It's just a regular white sheep."

Odd raised an eyebrow. "Really? But that's too easy."

"Exactly. Don't over think things. That's what always causes you trouble when we go on missions."

Odd pouted and folded his arms across his chest. "Oh fine. I WAS actually trying to think this time, you know?"

He cracked a small grin and saluted to his friend and turned away. "I need to go."

The man nodded and smiled. "See ya captain."

**15**

"I remember him…" she said.

Her friend looked over her shoulder. "Me too. He was such a shrimp."

"Not really…I always thought he was kind of cute…"

"Hun, you think all the nerds are cute."

She blushed and continued flipping through the scrapbook, memories flying through her mind each time she turned a page.

"So, Lita, when are we gonna get the job done."

The woman considered thoughtfully. "I was thinking tonight. That was the deadline, right?"

Her friend nodded gravely. "We've procrastinated a bit long, don't you think?"

She laughed. "Don't we always?"

"Well, yeah, but not to the last day…"

"Eh, it's okay. I like challenges. The more dangerous the better."

Her friend nodded. "Well said."

**0V3R**

Clad in black, the two girls scaled the wall of the mansion and clambered up the roof.

The Japanese one signaled to the side and they split up.

She silently cut a perfect circle in the window and reached over to the side, turning off the alarm.

'053191', she thought to herself silently. After punching in the code, the alarm shut off, preventing any form of a noise that would blow her cover.

She smirked and crept into the room without a sound.

If all went according to plan, the security cameras should have all been off and unable to function for another 5 hours.

She stalked across the hallway and froze when she heard voices on the other side.

The Japanese girl leapt up on the ceiling and grabbed hold of the wooden divider across it.

She effortlessly lifted her legs up, making sure she wasn't in line of sight of the people crossing.

"Well, yes, but what if the…"

The two men passed the girl suspended over them.

She heard their voices trail off in the distance and counted to ten.

She hopped back down, her padded boots extinguishing the sound from her impact with the floor.

"Yumi, Yumi, come in."

The black-haired girl heard the voice crackling into her ear.

She continued creeping along the hallway.

"Yeah?" she whispered.

"I shut down all the video cameras."

"Good. I'll meet you in the center room."

"Okay. Over and out."

She continued down the hall and entered the door to her right.

The Japanese girl looked at her watch impatiently. 'Hurry up, Aelita…'

The door behind her opened and closed. "Okay, Lita, we need to—"

She heard the sound of a gun clicking and whirled around.

A man clad in a black suit smirked. "Thought you got it, eh?"

Yumi stared in shock at the brown-haired man in front of her. "How…how did you find us?"

He raised the gun to her eye level and shrugged. "We found your friend sauntering down one of the hallways and we caught her."

Yumi swore under her breath. 'Why does Aelita have to be so careless?'

A blonde haired man came in and brought in the unconscious body of her best friend.

"If you dare hurt her, I WILL kill you," growled Yumi.

The blonde haired man laughed and shook his head. "Oooh, scary."

Yumi smirked and flicked her wrist, bringing a butterfly knife to her hand. She threw it at the blonde haired man, hitting him in his hand.

He cried in pain and dropped the body.

The brown haired man gasped and began firing random shots at the girl in black. But Yumi was fast.

WAY too fast.

By the time the man had begun firing she had taken out a dagger and stabbed it into his chest.

He cursed loudly and yelled for reinforcements.

But by the time the extra guards came, the two women were long gone.

Ulrich took of his sunglasses and wiped the sweat off his brow. He collapsed onto the floor, blackness consuming him.

**R473D**

He woke up to find himself in a purely white room. The right side of his chest was bandaged and he felt himself groan.

He looked to his side and read the clock. '1:02' he thought silently.

He tried to get out of bed but took a sharp intake of breath when he felt the pain pulsing through his body.

Ulrich stubbornly fell back onto the bed and growled. 'Stupid injuries.'

A man dressed in a doctor's jacket came in and smiled. "I see you've finally woken up."

"What happened, doc?"

The doctor checked his files and scratched his head. "Well, from what I know, you were on a job and someone stabbed your chest and you passed out."

Ulrich felt himself tense up as the memories from the day before came flooding back to him.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.

"Well, you came in at three in the morning, and now it just passed lunch, so I'd say about eleven hours. Majority of the time you were sleeping, though, so we weren't too worried."

"What about Odd?"

The doctor smiled. "He's fine. Just in the room across yours.

Ulrich just nodded and heard his stomach growl.

The doctor laughed. "I'll send in a nurse to bring in some food."

He smiled and thanked the doctor.

Shortly later, his boss came in and sat in the seat near the bed. "Well, at least the mission was a success."

Ulrich blew out a long sigh. "She's tough, that I have to give."

The burly man smiled and replied, "She'll be back for revenge. It's the first heist she's failed."

Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "Really? Wow."

His boss nodded. "She's so good, people often refer to her as 'the dark beauty'. There was a time when her mission almost failed, and her cover was almost blown. Her beanie and goggles had fallen off, and when she turned around, the guard saw a short glimpse of her. She immediately knocked him out, but he remembered a flash of black hair and a beautiful Japanese face."

Ulrich considered thoughtfully. "So she's Japanese?"

"Yep. Highly skilled in the martial arts. She also has a partner. 'Lita' is what she's supposedly called."

"Do we know the name of the Japanese girl?"

"Nope. Not yet, at least. Listen, why don't you eat your food, and then we'll talk some more."

Ulrich nodded and grabbed the food tray that had been set beside him.

**4ND 50 15 L0V3**

Aelita sighed dramatically. "I'm sorry…" she said again, holding an ice pack to her forehead.

"It's OKAY," replied Yumi again.

"I really am."

Yumi laughed. "It's okay Aelita. There's a first time for everything. Now you know not to be so clumsy."

Aelita nodded. "Boy, have I learned my lesson. No more dancing in the hallways."

Smiling, Yumi grabbed an apple and bit into it.

"Let's hit to the training grounds. I think we need to brush up on our skills."

They both hopped into Yumi's Porsche Boxter and left to the training facility.

Yumi parked in the lot and entered the gym.

She was greeted by various people working out and continued to the back, Aelita following closely behind her.

She entered through the double door and greeted a woman in a tae-kwon-do outfit.

"Hey Sam," she said. Aelita smiled and waved.

Sam smiled. "Hey. Heard you finally failed your first mission."

Yumi laughed and blushed. "If that's how you want to put it…yeah. It didn't really go according to plan."

Aelita had a faint trace of pink tingeing her cheeks. "It was all me. I was dancing in the hallways and the guard caught me and knocked me unconscious."

Sam laughed. "So typical of you Aelita. Well, if you wanted to spar, we have quite a bunch of people today, so feel free to ask around."

Yumi nodded and thanked her.

"Yumi!" yelled a familiar voice.

Yumi whirled around and smiled. "Hey Theo."

He smiled and gave her a high five. "Wanna spar?"

Yumi nodded happily and grabbed her gym bag off a bench. "Lemme just change."

She rushed into the girls' locker room and put on her grey tank top and her black baller shorts that went down to her knees.

Yumi felt her heart pound against her chest. Theo was there waiting for her, no shirt and his gym shorts that went a little lower than his knees. He looked really hot.

He smiled and approached her.

"Alright. Lezgo."

He led her to a large blue mat and held his arms up in a fighting stance.

Yumi smirked and let a fist fly at him. He easily blocked this, but was unprepared when Yumi lashed out her right leg and tripped him.

Theo used the momentum to land on his hands and sprung off the mat.

"Nice," he muttered.

Yumi smiled and motioned him to come closer.

Theo brushed the hair out of his face and charged at her, his fists a flurry of hits, but only a few actually hit their target.

Yumi caught one of his fists and attempted to hit him. Theo grabbed her hand and pulled her back against his chest.

Her breathing became labored as she felt her skin come in contact with his.

Theo leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Don't get distracted."

She smirked. "You wish," she said as she flipped him over.

Theo moaned and crashed to the floor. He frowned and got up. Jumping in the air he pulled a roundhouse kick and hit her on her cheek.

Yumi staggered back and wiped the blood from her lip. Yep, there was gonna be a bruise the next day.

Her fury grew as she kicked his chest and twisted to kick him again. She sprung off him and doubled back to her previous spot.

Theo smiled. "That's all?"

Yumi growled and punched him across the cheek. Theo turned to face her and grabbed her wrists.

"Push it, Yumi, I KNOW you can do better than that."

Yumi felt confused. She shrugged and aimed a kick at his neck and pushed him to the floor. She placed her foot on his chest and smiled teasingly.

"Gotcha."

Theo smirked and pulled at her foot causing her to fall on top of him.

"Can't keep your hands off me, eh?"

Yumi blushed and got up, brushing herself off. "I think that's enough for today."

She held out a hand to help him up. He grasped it and she pulled him up.

"I think I'll just go lift weights," she said, smiling at him.

He smiled back and ruffled her hair. "Aiight. Have fun."

He left and went over to the guys' locker room.

Yumi sighed and turned to the weights section.

She picked up one of them and sat on a seat. She slowly began lifting it up and down, repetitively, keeping a count of how many.

After a while, she switched to her left arm and began doing the same.

She stopped and rolled to the floor and started doing sit-ups.

'Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six…'

She continued counting and grinned when she saw Theo squat down in front of her, clad in a white tee and khaki cargo shorts. His hair was still damp from his quick shower. Yumi sat up.

"Wassup?"

Theo smiled and spoke up, "Just wanted to tell you that they're opening the rock-climbing wall tomorrow. I wanna race you to the top."

Yumi laughed. "Okay. Meet you there same time as today?"

He nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go now. Got a date with this hot chick I met at the club."

Yumi felt herself tense up in jealousy. "Cool. I'll see you tomorrow, then," she said, a little harsher than she meant to.

She resumed her sit-ups and averted her eyes from Theo's strong gaze on her.

He frowned, but got up anyways and left.

Yumi sighed and switched to push-ups. 'No need to be jealous, Yumi. He goes out with girls all the time. And besides, love is a stupid thing.'

She felt her muscles grow sore after doing so many push-ups, but she kept on. 'Love is not needed. Just one of the extra things in life that are insignificant.'

Yumi collapsed onto the floor and wiped the sweat from her face. She got up and ran into the showers.

She quickly undressed and grabbed some shampoo, massaging it into her hair.

Washing it out, she thought of the failed heist yesterday. She thought of the different ways she could have improved the mission.

Yumi sighed frustratedly. She shouldn't have split up with Aelita. But whatever. What's done is done.

She turned off the shower and changed into her black cargo capris and white tank top that had "Volcom" scrawled on it in black. She also grabbed her black Von Dutch cap and went out to get Aelita.

"Aelita, you ready to go?"

Her pink-haired friend looked half dead and over-sweaty.

Yumi stared at her in shock. "What happened to you?"

Aelita used her sleeve to wipe off the sweat from her face. "I sparred with Sam."

Yumi laughed and pinched her cheek. "Hun, I need to go."

Aelita smiled. "I'll get a ride with someone else. Go ahead."

Yumi nodded and left the gym. Getting into her car, she backed out and headed to the local club, hoping it wasn't the same one Theo was going to. She needed a drink to clear her head.

**A/N: Okay, this was pretty spontaneous. I don't even know if I'm actually gonna update it or not. Just review and let me know your thoughts, and if it's horrible, I'll remove it and pretend it was never posted.**

**Background of the story: It's a major AU, so Yumi and Ulrich never met each other. Yumi's a form of an assassin/thief, Aelita's her partner and Sam's her "trainer" soft of. Ulrich's a top spy in the FBI, Odd's something close to that and Jeremie's the computer guy with the smarts (who hasn't been introduced yet) and comes up with all the gadgets for Odd and Ulrich. This is most definitely a UxY story, otherwise, I'd shoot myself. But yeah, that's all I have to say, cos I didn't think up the whole story plot very well…xDDDD**

**Hmm…maybe I'll make Herb a super-evil scientist and Sissi his ever-faithful servant...hehe.**

**Okay then, that's all for now.**

**And sorry again for starting ANOTHER new story…instead of updating all the other billions that I have.**

**.animeBUBBLES**

**PS-If you can figure out what the dividers of each scene say, I'll give you a cookie.**


	2. Honor

**N3V3R**

Yumi smiled at the bouncer. "Hey John."

The burly man smiled back. "Hey Yumi. Long time no see! Go on ahead."

He stepped aside and let Yumi through the club.

She felt dazed as she pushed through the dancing crowd, trying to get past them all.

Yumi sighed and slumped into one of the chairs. "I'll take a bellini please."

The bartender smiled and nodded, grabbing a bottle of wine and peach juice.

Fixing the drink, he gave her the small cup and a little umbrella. Yumi laughed lightly and thanked the man.

She raised the cup to her mouth and took a small sip.

"Mmm…" she said aloud. "Been a while since I've had a drink of alcohol."

"Is that so?" asked a man sitting beside her.

She looked at him and smiled. "Yeah. My job always got in the way."

He nodded gravely. "I know exactly what you mean. My boss won't let me drink the slightest drop."

The guy was exceptionally hot. Orthodontist money, well-spent. He had a straight line of pearly whites in his mouth. Intense amber eyes, beautiful brown hair with a slight red tinge to it. His hair was really messy, but that just added to the hotness. It looked like he had just grabbed a handful of gel and rolled it all over his hair.

Yumi smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Totally."

He smiled back and extended a hand. "My name's Ulrich."

She took hold of his hand and smiled. "Yumi."

"Nice to meet you, Yumi. That's a Japanese name, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I come from Japan."

'Just like the assassin…' thought Ulrich. She had a beautiful face as well, just like in the description. And to top it off, jet black hair that ended just past her shoulders...

'I am SO overreacting,' he thought. 'Not every Japanese girl that I meet that has a pretty face is going to be the assassin, okay Ulrich? Don't be so suspicious.'

He noticed her face turn slightly pink. "Would you like to dance?" she asked, pointing to the dance floor.

He gave her a crooked grin. "Sorry. I'd love to, but I don't know how to dance."

She smiled and grabbed his hand. "Then I'll teach you."

Ulrich shook his head. "No thanks."

She nodded smiling, although as she spoke, she could feel the bitterness of her disappointment.

"Oh. Okay."

"Look, don't take it personally, okay? Dancing just isn't my thing."

"Okay."

He swirled the yellow liquid in his glass. "So what do you do for a living?"

"Actually, I dance. I teach hip-hop classes."

"Ah, I see," he said.

"What do you do?" asked Yumi.

Ulrich scratched his head. "I'm a waiter."

"Oh really? Do you get paid a lot?"

"Unfortunately, it's not much," he said, shaking his head. "But it's enough for me."

"Cool."

He laughed. "Yeah."

Yumi blushed and looked away, thinking of how minimal their conversation was.

Ulrich stood up to leave and handed the tab to the bartender.

"Well, I'm offing now. Working the night shift today."

She nodded and smiled. "I was wondering if you'd come meet me at the gym tomorrow at 5."

He smiled brightly, and she felt her pulse quicken. "I'd love to. You're talking about the Kano Gym, right?"

"Yup. They're opening the rock climbing wall."

Ulrich nodded and stroked his chin consideringly. "Yeah. I'll come."

He turned towards the exit and waved good-bye to her.

"See ya."

**F4II**

"FINE!" Aelita yelled into the phone as she slammed it on the receiver. She sobbed silently as she placed her head in her hands.

He dumped her. He actually dumped her. After five full years of dating. He said that he "found someone else".

"Someone else my ass…" mumbled Aelita. "Stupid fucking bastard. Waste of my fucking time."

She fell onto her bed and mumbled incoherent things into her pillow.

Wiping dry tears from her face, she got up and slammed her bedroom door closed.

Yumi jumped and smiled slightly. "Sup, Lita?"

Aelita burst into tears and cried onto her friend's shoulder.

"He…he…"

"Shh…it's okay. What happened?"

"He dumped me."

"Oh that's horrible!"

Aelita nodded and sighed in frustration. "All men are faggots."

Yumi's eyes widened in shock. "Aelita! Don't cuss!"

"Well, he deserved it," she said childishly, pouting and sinking into the sofa. "I hate men."

Yumi sighed and sat down next to her. "Welcome to my world."

"I don't get it," said Aelita. "Here we are, two devilishly beautiful girls, and no one to love us."

Yumi smirked. "That's why we don't WANT love. Love isn't needed, ya hear? Just stay single all your life, and buddy, it's all good. I guarantee it."

Aelita smiled brightly and nodded. "You're right." She got up and stood on the table. "MEN ARE SHRIMPY UNSIGNIFICANT BEINGS THAT NEED TO BE RUN OVER BY TRUCKS!" she yelled.

**(Okay, that section was a bit sexist, I know, but seriously, after you've been let down like that, a girl's gotta let the anger out somehow…)**

They both burst out laughing. "Let's watch a movie," said Yumi, flipping through channels.

"Hmm…howa bout Shark Tale?"

"Uhh…isn't that a bit…childish?"

"Good point. The Grudge?"

"No way! I'm gonna stay up all night thinking about THAT one."

"That's true. Mmm…what about…Miss Congeniality?"

"YEAHH! We HAVE to watch that again! And after that we can head to AMC and watch the second one!"

"Great idea!"

Yumi grabbed the popcorn, and Aelita grabbed the drinks and candy. Once they were ready, they settled into the sofa and started up the movie.

"Oh my gosh Yumi, she is TOTALLY my role model."

Yumi just laughed and grabbed the bucket of popcorn.

**1n**

Ulrich banged his head onto the desk. "Dammit. Who is she?"

Odd sighed heavily in response and began shuffling through the papers. "Haven't found any leads yet, sir."

Jeremie nodded. "If you can find her again, we can leave a tracking device on her. Then we can hunt her down and figure out who she is."

Ulrich nodded and spoke up. "Well, yeah, but how do we get to her?"

Odd stood up. "Plainly said, we lure her in."

"How?"

Odd grinned mischievously. "Assassins go for rich, old people right?"

Ulrich nodded. "Right…"

"Well then, all we have to do is set up bait and ambush her," replied Odd, stretching out his hands for emphasis.

"Who will be the bait?"

"Hmm…what about…Peter Codlings?" **(lol, completely made-up)**

Jeremie nodded. "Perfect target. Old, uber-rich, and isn't quite as famous anymore. It would be too much of a public thing."

"Okay. So how do we get her to attempt to assassinate him?"

"Simple…" said Odd, gesturing towards the faxing machine. "We go in as criminal masterminds and give her an assignment. After all, she _is _greedy, isn't she?"

"Okay. So we know how to lure her in. How the hell are we gonna contact her?"

Jeremie smiled knowingly. "I know a bunch of black market intelligence people that can help us out…"

Ulrich smiled menacingly and nodded. "I like how you guys think…"

**I0V3**

Aelita yawned and flipped the covers off her bed. Getting up, she hopped into her favorite bunny slippers and slumped into the bathroom.

Minutes later, she emerged, fresh and ready for the day.

She flounced into the kitchen, got out a box of cereal and a jug of milk, and poured both into a small bowl.

"Morning Yumi."

Yumi barely looked up from the newspaper and the cup of coffee she was holding. "Morning."

A small beep echoed throughout the house, and Yumi raised an eyebrow.

She grabbed a glock handgun and raised it towards the direction of the sound.

The beeping continued and started speeding up faster and faster.

"AELITA, TAKE COVER!"

Something in the house exploded violently, and knocked down the two girls.

"What the fuck?" whispered Yumi, getting up and running toward the explosion.

Her bedroom was up in flames and things were starting to fall apart. "Aelita, call 911. NOW!"

Aelita nodded and ran for the phone. Yumi marched into the inferno and yelped slightly when the window nearby her shattered. She looked towards it and saw a masked figure run away.

"GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" she yelled, ready to jump in after the person. But before she jumped out the window, she caught a glimpse of a crumpled note in the middle of the glass.

Yumi bent down to pick it up and uncrumpled it.

"I have a small job for you," she read aloud. "Meet me at 10 PM sharp at the clock tower. Bring your little sidekick. I couldn't care less if you brought any weapons. It is of no matter to me. And I swear, if you don't show up, I will find you."

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Screw that," she replied as she tossed the note into the fire.

**W17H**

Dressed in a long black leather coat and black trousers, Ulrich hid his face with his usual pair of sunglasses and a black trucker hat. He silently stalked down the alleyway, being careful to avoid the many articles of trash littering the walkway.

The stench was incredibly horrible. He raised a gloved hand to his nose and cupped his face, trying to prevent the odor from seeping in.

He looked side to side and then bent down to face an air vent. "I'm here to see Luca."

After speaking, he knocked the metal plating three times and peered in.

"Alright," came a gruff voice. "Meet me at the back door."

Ulrich walked towards the other side of the alley and reached a wall. The wall slid to the side, and Ulrich went inside. It was dark, dank and humid. And yet again, smelly.

He scowled and stopped in front of a big, bald man. He had tattoos scattered all over his body and piercings dotting everywhere. It looked like he had taken a vacation and hadn't exercised for a while. His razor must have taken a vacation as well, seeing as he had a small stubble growing at the base of his chin.

"I'm here to see Luca," repeated Ulrich.

"Heard ya the first time," replied the man, leading him through a series of corridors. "Follow me."

"I have been." Ulrich shot back, growing more irritated by the second.

The man growled and turned to face him. "Look man. I ain't in da mood, so I suggest ya keep your mouth shut, clear?"

Ulrich nodded sternly. "Crystal."

The man turned back around and continued the trek through a maze of hallways and staircases.

He reached a certain door and stopped. Knocking four times, he yelled, "LUCA! CUSTOMER!"

The door creaked open, and Ulrich walked in, followed by the man.

A large mahogany desk with scattered pencils stood in front of him, as well as a large black leather chair, which had turned away facing the wall.

"What do you need," came the voice, drawled out in a thick Italian accent.

Ulrich twirled his thumbs and spoke up, "Do you know the 'Dark Beauty'?"

The chair swiveled around, and Ulrich looked into the face of a pale, old looking man who was smiling in a creepy way.

"Know her? KNOW HER? Boy, she is the MOST WANTED assassin in the WORLD! Best of the best. Word has it that she actually failed her most recent mission."

"I need a way to contact her."

The man laughed and leaned into the chair. "You'll need a lot of grand."

Ulrich tossed him an overstuffed envelope. "Twenty grand."

The man stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose I could take that. She lives near Vantage Pointe. Partner name: Lita. Identified Japanese, jet black hair, very beautiful and is currently single. Car is a Porsche Boxter. That's all I know."

Ulrich smiled and nodded. "Good enough for me."

"I'm glad."

**T3H**

Ulrich shut the door to his car and walked into the gym. He took a look around and smiled. "I think I might be coming here more often," he thought aloud.

After paying for all the membership fees and etc etc etc, he walked into the men's room and changed into his workout clothes.

He put his stuff away into one of the lockers and walked out.

'Hmm…' wondered Ulrich. 'Where's that Yumi girl?'

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Walking towards the climbing wall, he approached the instructor there and asked, "Um, can I climb the wall thingy?"

The woman smiled and nodded. "Of course. Just go talk to the man in blue, and he'll get you all strapped up and ready."

Ulrich smiled and went over to the man.

**3N3MY**

It took a while, but the police finally left the house. The firefighters had stopped the fire, so it was only Yumi's room wasn't damaged.

Since she didn't really want too much investigation to go around, Yumi told them that she had lit a cigarette, and it had flared up, causing her to drop it and start a fire.

For one thing, Yumi didn't smoke. But the police didn't know that.

Her insurance covered most of the damage and furniture, so the two assassins weren't too worried about it.

But Yumi didn't tell anyone about the note she had found.

At about 4:45, Yumi left for the gym and changed in the women's locker room.

After changing, Yumi exited the room and wandered into the gym. She walked over to the brand-new climbing wall and smiled brightly.

"It's huge, isn't it?" asked Theo, coming towards her.

"It's ginormous."

He laughed and smiled at her. "Let's go test it out."

Yumi nodded and followed him.

"Hi there. Are you here to try the wall?" asked a man clad in blue.

"Yep," replied Theo.

"And you too?" asked the man, turning to face Yumi.

She nodded.

"Okay. Just wait a few minutes. We already got someone up the wall. Just go and wait by the benches."

They thanked the man and strolled to the benches and sat down.

Awkward silence-

Yumi watched the guy climbing the wall. His muscles looked rock hard and he was climbing it slowly, but it looked like he was putting very little effort into it.

She looked a little closer and gasped slightly. It was Ulrich! And man, did he look hot up there.

She saw him glance around the room and smiled at him when they locked eyes. He smiled back and attempted to wave at her but ended up slipping. His hand caught one of the holds nearby, however, and he fastened himself on the wall again. He turned back and continued climbing.

Yumi sighed dreamily and watched him intensely.

"So you know him?" asked Theo.

"Yeah. I met him at the club last night."

Theo raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell me you were going clubbing."

Yumi frowned. "Well sooo-rrry Mr. Nosey. I didn't NEED to tell you."

Theo scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're still mad cause I went out with that girl last night, aren't you?"

"Mad? MAD?" yelled Yumi defiantly. "I couldn't care less. Go ahead and date any fucking girl you want. It's not my damn life."

He glared at her and turned away.

"Uh…am I in the middle of something?"

Yumi looked up and attempted to smile. "Hey Ulrich. And no, just discussing some things that happened yesterday."

He nodded and extended a hand to Theo. "Hi, I'm Ulrich."

Theo looked at the hand and wrinkled his nose. "So I heard." He got up and left.

Yumi sighed. "I'm sorry about that. He isn't exactly in the best mood."

Ulrich smiled. "It's alright. I'm sort of…'used' to the cold shoulder, if you will."

"Okay then. So, how was your climb?"

They started walking towards the back. "It was cool. I'm thinking of coming to this gym instead of my other one. Although if that other guy is just as unwelcoming as before…"

Yumi smiled. "Don't sweat it. He just doesn't like newbies."

"Ah, I see."

She opened the double doors at the end of the gym. "Wanna spar?" she asked, pointing to the mats at the side of the gym.

"Aren't you going to climb the wall?"

Yumi flicked her wrist. "There's always time for that later. So, do you wanna?"

He smiled at her. "Sure. Be aware though, just cause you're a girl, doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."

She smirked. "Same here."

Ulrich feigned hurt. "Did you just call me a girl?"

Yumi smiled. "Yup. An ugly one at that."

He laughed heartily and assumed his fighting stance. "Alright girly. Playtime's over."

**A/N: Sorta, kinda-ish cliffy. Well, not really, but yeah. You get the point, right? I guess this will become a real story, seeing as you guys want me to update it. So I guess I will. :smiles brightly: And now, I will take the time to thank all my reviewers and award them with cookies.**

**Aelita Lyoko the 2nd/Virtual Freak- **LOL. Okay, I decided to do that evil-scientist-Herb thingy, but it's not going to be quite as light-hearted. I'm TRYING (keyword: trying) to make this a slightly angsty fic, and yes, in some weird ad twisted way, XANA is very highly involved with the story. MUAHUAHUAHUA!

**Yumi- **Thank you! Your review made my day!

**Neo Aguni- **Thank you so much for your review. Somehow, I feel like smiling. xDD

**Miko-kilala- **lol. Yes. Interesting. THANKS for REVIEWING!

**Athleticangel88- **Wah, you reviewed! And you get a cookie anyways, just cos I feel so happy right now. xDDD I promise I'll reply soon, kk?

**Luna- **Thank you! And here's your cookie!

**Hawaiiangurl361- **lol. Thank you! And I'll write a story other than a UxY pairing the day pigs fly and hell freezes over! xDDD

**Chinesechic- **Omg, I so totally agree with you. UxY all da way! And yes, you got everything right. So here's a cookie!

**Magicalfairy12- **wahhhh, thank you so much! Your reviews always make me smile! Here's a cookie, and I'm glad you liked the Yumi and Theo scene!

**Hvonm06- **Thank you! I like your choice of words!xDDD Intriguing… lol. I think I'll use that more often!

**Aelita6349- **lol. If I EVER have any pairing other than UxY, I give you the authority to shoot me. xDDD Thank you for reviewing!

**Solodancer- **Haha. Here's a cookie! And thank you for reviewing!

**Keiko Nishidera- **Thank you! Okay, I think you got all the dividers, but it looks like your review got cut off or something. Here's a cookie anyways!

**Animegirl16- **Aww, you're so sweet! Yah, I promise to update all my other ones soon as well! And thank you!

**Mrs. Odd Della Robbia- **LOL. I LOVE YOUR PENNAME! That's truly original. xDDD Thank you for your EXHUBERANCE to this fic! Haha. The dividers said "Beauty is overrated and so is love."

**Spirit of Dragon- **lol. Thanks. And a cookie to you for correctly guessing! Hehe.

**Bachie- **aww…thank you!

**Star Way- **OMG! Congrats! You got first review ever! You get an Ulrich plushie! xDDD You get a cookie for correctly guessing! Wheee, thank you so much! I feel so special!

**Okay, that's all the reviews I think. Cookies for the dividers again! And just so everyone is clear, this will be my last Code: Lyoko multi-chapter story. After this, I'm only making one-shots, and _maybe_ some stories in Teen Titans or Rave Master or something. And another thing, my penname has NOTHING to do with the Powerpuff Girls. When I say bubbles, I mean literal BUBBLES that you can make with shampoo and such, aiight? Okay then. Paysh!**

**.animeBUBBLES**


	3. Rivalry

**A/N: lol, yeah, it says never fall in love with the enemy. GREAT JOB GUYS!**

Ulrich collapsed on the floor of his apartment as soon as he walked in. Sparring with Yumi wasn't exactly what he expected it to be. He expected her to be flimsy, not knowing how to throw a punch, how to kick.

He _really _didn't expect to be beaten either.

What was that his boss told him?

"_EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! I swear Ulrich, one of these days you won't seem like such a wiseass anymore, and then someone will shoot you!"_

_-_

Ah yes, he definitely didn't expect Yumi to fight like that.

He felt for the wall, and slowly stood up. As much as he wanted to go straight to sleep, he _unfortunately_ had an appointment with a certain target at 10 at the clock tower.

Sighing disappointedly, Ulrich stepped into the shower, the cold water soothing his sore muscles. He liked cold water. It was refreshing, like bathing in a spring. It was also less expensive. And when he went on missions, usually there was no hot water, and hence, he decided to get used to cold water at home.

Yumi definitely was something else, he decided. She was outrageously beautiful. While they were sparring, Ulrich had noticed how she was always on her feet, ready to meet any attack coming at her.

Ulrich assumed that she fought so well as a result of her dancing. Her moves were graceful and swift. She always kept a keen eye on his movements, and tried to predict what he was doing next.

If he hadn't known any better, Ulrich would have thought right away that she was "the Dark Beauty". 'Which she still could be,' he thought to himself. 'Only time will tell.'

He stepped out of the bathtub, changed and exited the room.

Glancing at the clock, he growled and turned on the TV. 'Two hours to kill,' he thought mournfully. 'That's such a long time…'

**Yumi POV**

I rushed to the hair salon. In about 2 hours or so, my new employer was going to show up at the clock tower, and I still needed to be ready with an alias.

I had my hair dyed to a light brown color and had dirty blonde streaks put in. I was plucked, waxed, and even gotten my ears and bellybutton pierced.

On the side, I also bought a large box of colored-contact lenses that would last me for about 3 months. "3 months' time should be enough to get the job done," I told myself.

At 8:57, a cab dropped me off at the very base of the clock tower. Deciding that my employer wasn't there yet, I sat down on one of the benches nearby.

A man in a long black trench coat sat down next to me. My eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. "Beautiful evening isn't it?" he asked, his voice slightly cracking from the cold.

I raised a delicate eyebrow and turned to face the man. His hair was a bright blonde, and was gelled quite thoroughly, I noted carefully. All this hair was spiked up, as if he was Goku in Super-Saiyan form or something. He seemed…familiar…

"Yes, indeed it is," I replied, just as planned.

"It would be such a waste if one did not enjoy it," he said.

I just nodded.

The man stood up and held out a hand. "May I have the pleasure of taking a short walk with this beautiful young lady?"

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and placed my hand in his. "Of course," I answered, standing up.

He smiled gently and laid a gentle kiss on the top of my hand.

I blushed faintly and followed him down the path to the park, my hand still wrapped tightly around his.

"My name is Odd Demitri."

"Interesting name," I replied, smiling slightly. "Yuliana Imshi."

**(LOL. The names are TOTALLY corny.)**

"Are you willing to take up a job for me?" he asked, looking down at me.

I shrugged. "Depends."

He grinned cheekily and looked up at the stars. "You didn't bring your partner?"

"Nope, she fell asleep."

The man started laughing. "Anyways, about the job. We need you to find out about a virus."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Whoa, whoa…Hold up a sec. I'm not a spy. I'm an assassin. A thief. NOT a James Bond, double-oh-seven type of person."

"I know that very well. However, if you DO manage to finish the mission, we will reward you five million."

My eyes grew wide with shock. "F—five…Five million?"

I had been rewarded with high income, per say, a million or so, but never such a high amount before.

He nodded. "We're getting desperate. Usually we go for lower-class assassins, but this mission is over the charts. We needed someone like you."

"Is it really that bad?" I asked.

"Depends," he replied, smirking.

I gritted my teeth angrily. "Don't irritate me."

The man held up his hands in mock-surrender. "Okay, okay. Just, calm down. I'm going to take you to our main building."

"How do I know this isn't an ambush?" I asked slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"You just have to trust me," he said with pleading eyes. "Please, you're our last hope."

Somehow, I felt I could trust this man. I always went with my gut feeling, so I decided to follow him.

"Very well then. Lead the way," I responded.

**(Okay, I know this TOTALLY would _not _happen in real life, but this isn't real life, and so just play along, okay?)**

We entered a very large multi-story building and went inside the elevator.

The blonde-haired man pushed the button for the highest floor.

A small "Ding" was heard, and the doors opened.

**-Skipping to the main part-**

"Madame, I'd like you to meet my partner Ulrike von Gradwitz."

**(Again with the corniness)**

I observed his facial features. His hair was almost identical to Ulrich's, but I couldn't see his eyes, which were hidden by sunglasses.

"Yu—Yuliana Imshi," I stuttered, blushing at the fact I almost said my real name.

He nodded, smirking casually. "Women tend to be like that around me."

I stood there, gaping at his straight-forward cockiness. "Excuse me? You think I'm stuttering because of _you_?"

The man shrugged. "Look, you don't have to be embarrassed or anything…" he retorted.

"Embarrassed? EMBARRASSED? Why you little smug, arrogant bast—!"

Odd held me by my shoulders. "Calm down. It's okay. You get used to him after a while."

I wrenched myself from his grasp. "I will NOT tolerate either of you touching me, understood?"

"I know you think you're hot and all, but you really aren't. Why would anyone want to go off and try to cop a feel of you?" asked Ulrike, smirking victoriously.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. It was a trick I learned from my sensei so that I could calm down.

"Oh great. Look, Odd, now she's trying to meditate," scoffed Ulrich.

My eyes flew open, bursting with rage and fury. "I'll have you know, meditation is not a bad thing!"

"Didn't say it was. But seriously. If you need to meditate, do it on your own time. Don't waste mine."

I fumed, ready to jump on him and kill him. Actually, I was about to dive and conk his head with my fist when he started towards the center of the large room.

"Now to business," said Ulrike. We approached this huge circle table with a small black center. We each sat down on one of the seats.

A large holograph popped up from the little circle. I gasped slightly, startled by the sudden flash of light.

"Quit gaping," snorted Ulrike. "What, are you too poor for these kinds of things?"

I scowled and glared daggers at him, wanting fire to come from the sky and burn him and his stupid self up.

"No actually, I haven't seen something this low-tech for a long time," I countered, hoping it was enough to get him to shut up.

"Oh really. Well, I'll have you know, this is the top of the line merchandise—"

"Obviously not high enough," I finished for him.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "We'll see how 'great' and 'amazing' you really are when it comes down to the real battlefield."

I smirked at him. "You won't be disappointed."

"Watch me. I'm not easily satisfied."

"Neither am I."

Odd sighed, his head resting in his hands. "Can we PLEASE just get on with it?"

I raised an eyebrow and snorted. "He started it."

Ulrike smiled menacingly. "And I'm darn proud of it."

We glared at each other for another while and then turned to face the fuzzy hologram in front of us.

Odd started talking. "There have been mysterious messages and threat from a super-lunatic who calls himself 'AAA'. Why? We don't know. For all we know, he could be the literal owner of the Triple-A Company."

I exchanged a questioning glance with him. "AAA? Why would someone call himself AAA?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "We just said, 'WE DON'T KNOW.' Or do I have to spell it out for you, W-E—"

"Shut up for once, would you?" I told him, growing more irritated by the moment.

"I think she's PMSing," he whispered to Odd, just loud enough for me to hear him.

I growled and stood up. "That's it. I'm outing. I'm an assassin. A gunman. Not a freak who's here to solve a message threat from a guy who calls himself AAA. _Especially _if I have to deal with a son of a bitch like him," I said, pointing at Ulrike.

As I walked through the doors, I could hear Odd scolding Ulrike for being such a rude "rebel without a cause."

I exited the building, called for a cab and went home.

**A/N:sweatdrops: Hehe…sorry for such a short update…but I felt like stopping there. WHEEE! And so we introduce YULI and ULRIKE into the story…and we know how mean Ulrich is for business, and how Yumi feels so defenseless. Woohoo! And so the plot thickens…**

**Kudos to those who can identify what 'AAA' means (other than the car-insurance company) before I explain it later on in the story. You smart, smart people…lol.**

**.animeBUBBLES**


	4. Trust

**A/N: Okay, so first thing's first. This is where I magicalfairy12 take over andplease don't hate me for taking over the story. I know Anime Bubbles and I have different writing styles, but I'm trying my best to write like her. But its hard. So, if you don't like the job I've done, just don't read it, okay? Don't flame, because I already know some of you won't like it. Anyway, if you flame, it would make me feel terrible, like I'm not doing a good enough job of continuing her story and I'm trying my best. It's all the original plotline, by the way, so the mastermind behindthis whole thing is still your beloved Anime Bubbles (who came up with a fantastic story for your guys here so you should totally thank her if you get the chance). I'm just putting her masterpiece into words.**

Yumi woke up with a headache. Groaning she went to the bathroom and felt around for the medicine cabinet. Not finding it where it was supposed to be, she finally tried opening her eyes more than a smidgen. The bathroom was unfamiliar.

"Yumi?" Aelita's voice rang through the apartment. Aelita appeared at the door of the small bathroom as she watched Yumi grope around blindly. "Yumi, what are you doing?"

"Where are the aspirins?"

"If only your enemies could see you now. I'm pretty sure they would laugh." Aelita made her way over to where the medicine cabinet was and took out a bottle of aspirins, handing it to Yumi.

"Thanks."

"Where were you last night anyway? You disappeared."

"It's what I do best," Yumi said, gulping down some aspirins without water.

"But you don't do it from your partner," Aelita said, frowning at Yumi. "And I like what you did with your hair. Nice color."

Yumi's eyes flew open, fully awake. She practically pushed Aelita aside to get to the small mirror. "Shit, shit," she said, examining her light brown and streaked dirty blonde hair by holding a few strands away from her head. "I have got to get this out."

Aelita snorted. "Good luck with that. Thirty showers will probably do it."

Yumi leaned against the sink and closed her eyes briefly. Then she opened them again. "I'll just get it re-dyed. Crap, this is going to be so bad on my hair."

"Since when did you care about your hair?"

"Since I got the job."

Aelita froze. "What job?"

Yumi turned to face her bewildered and slightly angry partner. Yumi swallowed slowly and grabbed Aelita by the shoulders, pushing her out of the bathroom. "I think you might have to sit down for this."

Aelita scowled as Yumi maneuvered her to the couch. "I have a feeling I won't be liking what I'm hearing."

-------------

Aelita and Yumi dressed in all black that night. Yumi was just pulling on one of her black leather high-heeled boots when her cell phone rang loudly on the counter. She lunged for it and checked the number. Theo. Typical.

"What?" Yumi said irritably into the phone, continuing with her zipping.

"Where have you been all day? I kind of expected you at the gym."

"Since when do you expect me to be anywhere with you?"

"Look, Yumi, I'm sorry if you are mad at me for bitching at that Ulrich guy, but I'm worried about you. I have never known you to skip out on a day at the gym."

"Theo, this really isn't a good time to talk, okay? Lita and I are just ready to head out. But if you really want to know why I wasn't at the gym, I'll tell you and it's actually kind of embarrassing."

"What?"

"I was having a bad hair day."

"Yumi! I am not joking, okay?"

"And neither am I. Look I have to go. I'll call you back or whatever, okay? I just need to go."

"Yumi! Yumi, just talk…"

Yumi ended the phone conversation with a push of the button and put her cell phone back on the counter. "Sorry, Theo. You and your worries will have to wait."

Aelita stood impatiently at the door, tapping the hardwood floor with her high-heeled boots that were identical with Yumi's. "About time you hung up on him. We have got to go."

-------------

"So this is what it feels like with black hair," Aelita said, swishing around her newly dyed locks. "I kind of feel…exotic." Aelita did a twirl, her hair making swooshing noises.

Yumi couldn't help but give an amused snort. "Believe me, it kind of gets less exotic when you have it as your natural hair color."

"Well, its not my natural hair color. So now I'm exotic."

"You are not exotic. You are Lina. Got it?"

"I am Lina the exotic wonder."

"Oh please."

They were in an elevator on the way to the top floor of a very industrial looking building. Yumi and Aelita stopped joking around as they neared the top. The _ding_ that sounded when they reached their destination seemed to echo in their minds as the doors slid open.

Odd Demitri was smiling at them in a gentlemen like fashion.

"I had a feeling you'd be back, Yuliana."

Yumi walked out from the elevator with Aelita close behind her, her mouth now set into a firm, business-like line. As Yumi brushed past Odd, she said, "We are not on first name terms yet, Odd Demitri."

Odd nodded respectfully and followed Yumi and her partner in. "So we aren't, Yuliana Imshi."

-------------

"So you're back," Ulrich said from the swivel chair he was sitting in. Yumi had a strong desire to wipe that haughty smirk off his face. Instead she just gave him a curt nod and seated herself in a chair a good ways away from the one he was at. Aelita sat down beside Yumi.

"I knew you would," Ulrich continued, turning to face them. "People like you are too greedy."

He got no reaction.

"Or, perhaps, it was my manly charm. That's it, isn't it, Yuliana?"

Yumi gave him an icy glance. "An apology will suffice, Ulrike."

Ulrich snorted. "For what?"

Yumi retained her cool demeanor. "For being an insolent bastard." Then she pretended like she was thinking. "Oh wait, I forgot. You just can't help being what you are. Forget the apology then. Let's get down to business." Yumi leaned forward onto the table, her hands clasped in front of her, waiting.

"Oh, sassy," Ulrich said, his smirk growing wider. "More spirit than last time, I must say. It's an improvement. Who's the raven haired girl?"

"I'm her partner, Lina. And I don't really take shit from guys like you, or just guys in general, so lets get to the point. Car insurance company guy."

"Wasting no time, I see," Ulrich observed.

"I recall that last time you made it clear that you don't like to waste time either," Yumi said evenly, examining her fingernails in an act of boredom.

Ulrich paused for a moment, leaning back comfortably in his swivel chair. Then he turned to face the center of the table, two fingers on his mouth. "Okay, then. Let's get started." The hologram from the day before shimmered into view.

"So, picking up from yesterday," Odd cut in professionally. "We've gotten threats and messages from this guy dubbing himself by AAA. Once again, we have no clue who this lunatic is. Jeremiah?"

The doors slid open on their right and a blonde haired man with thick-rimmed black glasses walked in, carrying a small hand-sized tape player/recorder. Yumi regarded him suspiciously, instinctively running an eye up and down his fairly skinny body, checking if he could potentially be carrying any sort of weapon. Aelita next to her did the same, starting from the feet up. When she finally got to the man's face, she had to swallow down a gasp. That was pretty good looking Jeremiah.

Jeremiah walked to the table and set down the tape recorder on the table right in between Yumi and Ulrich, who both were looking down at it. Odd introduced the newcomer as this was happening. "This is Jeremiah Bishop. He is a weapons specialist and will be equipping us on this mission."

Jeremiah gave no one in particular a small smile. "It's what I do best." He nodded to Yumi and Aelita. Aelita could feel herself getting hot when he gave that small smile. She wished suddenly that she hadn't worn a heavy trench coat. _Screw you, Yumi._

Jeremiah pressed the play button on the tape recorder and stepped back a little. It crackled and there was a lot of buzz. The message wasn't clear but Yumi could catch "virus" and "XANA". The whole message was also hard to hear because it was done completely in a whisper. Yumi made a mental note of that. This guy had some idea of what he was doing. When using voice identification, whispers were harder to identify than a regular speaking voice.

Once the message died, Jeremiah stopped the tape and took the tape recorder back in his hand. He then stepped away from the table again and stood next to Odd. Aelita tried to keep herself from staring at him. She focused painfully hard on the hologram that was spinning in front of her.

It seemed to be some sort of arcade place. She couldn't help but look away from the hologram in surprise, but she made sure she was only looking at Ulrike in surprise. "We're going to be sneaking into an normal gaming arcade?" she asked him, incredulous.

Ulrich smiled slyly. "We'll be going in broad daylight."

"But how are we going to sneak in if its broad daylig—"

"We're not sneaking in, Lina. We're going to do some research. Ask a few questions," Yumi quickly cut off her partner. She had seen Ulrike getting a little cocky in his smile over there. Yumi wasn't ready to get bested by Ulrike, not now and not ever.

"That's right," Odd cut in when he saw Ulrich open his mouth, no doubt for a cutting reply. Odd wasn't going to allow any more time to be wasted for the sake of Ulrich trying to sound smart. "We'll be going to several arcades during the next couple of days. We thought that since this guy was obvious a computer geek…"—here he turned to the blonde haired man standing dutifully next to him—"…no offense, Jeremiah, that we would start where most of them are: at arcades and cyber cafes." As Odd spoke, the holograms flashed through three more 3D models ofvarious buildings that were the best known among the geeks around town.

Ulrich smirked at the two girls when the hologram turned off and the slightly dimmed lights went back to normal. "You think you can handle it so far?"

Yumi stared back at him evenly. "Piece of cake." Then she turned to Odd and Jeremiah. "Even so, you said that Jeremiah was going to be equipping us with weapons?"

"Yes, well…" Odd started.

"You don't honestly expect that we'll equip you and your partner today, did you Yuliana?" Ulrich cut off his partner. He gave a hearty laugh and watched for Yumi's response.

"Why not?" Yumi demanded. "What if we need it?"

"So what if you do? Either die or defend yourself with your own weapons that I know you've got. Don't pretend you're defenseless." Ulrich leaned into the table to get closer to Yumi. "Did you really think we were that thick? Equip you with weapons now so later you can back out of the job but still keep our technology." Ulrich narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. "I don't think so."

"What makes you think that I'll back out, Ulrike?" Yumi said in a hard tone.

"Nothing. But that doesn't give me a reason to trust you."

Yumi narrowed her eyes back at Ulrich this time and the tension fizzled. Then Yumi abruptly stood up. Aelita was quick to also do so. They both started for the elevator door.

Odd glared at the back of Ulrich's head and called after the girls quickly. "Meet us here, three o'clock tomorrow."

"We'll be here," Yumi said firmly and walked into the elevator as it arrived and the door slid open. Aelita took the opportunity to take one last glance at Jeremiah as the doors slid shut. He happened to catch her eye and while they had eye contact, he smiled slightly and winked at her. Then the elevator was speeding its way downward back to the ground.

**A/N: I truly hope you liked it:D Thanks for reading.**


	5. Fancy

**A/N: Wow, I noticed that my last author's note had a lot of typos in it. That's embarrassing. Sorry about that. Anyway, I thank everyone heartily for commenting and giving me your much needed support. I don't really do indivdiual responses, so bear with me. But I love you guys for just giving me a chance. Thank you so much! Now, read and enjoy...**

"You think we got her?" Odd asked Ulrich when they got to Ulrich's apartment. He immediately claimed the couch as his own territory and laid down over the whole thing, sinking into the cushions.

"Don't get the pillows dirty," Ulrich cautioned, getting out two bottles of water from the fridge in the small kitchen nearby. He tossed one to Odd, who caught it with one hand.

"Water? Since when were you healthy like this? Usually I get thrown a beer."

"You forgot already, stupid? We have a mission and a big one at that. We can't get wasted right before."

"Okay, okay, blah blah blah," Odd said, swinging himself up to face Ulrich who had sat down in the armchair perpendicular to the couch. They both unscrewed the caps to the water bottles and took big swigs. By the time Odd put his down, it was half empty. He wiped his mouth and screwed back on the cap. "So, anyway back to my question. Do you think we got her?"

Ulrich had practically drained the entire thing. He didn't even bother recapping it as he answered Odd's question.

"For sure."

"Oh yeah, what makes you so sure?" Odd raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Ulrich finished off the water bottle. "She doesn't only want the money now. She has to keep up her ego."

"How'd you know that?"

"Simple. How would you feel if we got beat, out matched and out fought by those two girls, eh?"

Odd thought for a moment. "I'd feel pretty bad. Incompetent. Stupid. Ashamed. Embarrassed."

Ulrich nodded agreement to each word. "Well, the same goes for them. You can tell in Yuliana's tone of voice. She's not going to give up. Not now, when she's already taken the liberty of coming back to us and accepting the mission again after walking out the first time."

"Hmm…"Odd said, laying back down on the couch and thinking about it. "I think you're right. Ulrich, you're a smart guy."

"I know," Ulrich said, rolling his eyes and crushing the water bottle into a little wad of plastic in his hands.

"You know, I think Yuliana's partner, Lina or whatever her name is. I think she's pretty cute. I could have sworn I caught Jeremie checking her out."

Ulrich snorted. "Really?"

Odd nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah…hey, I wonder if they know any hot chicks that I could hook up with sometime. They have to know at least one or two."

Ulrich took the nearest thing he could find to throw (a sponge) and chucked it at Odd's head. Odd was lying facing away from the kitchen, so he didn't see it coming. He started and sat up quickly when the sponge bounced off the top of his head. "Hey, what was that for, Ulrich? That wasn't fair because I didn't see it coming."

Ulrich grinned. "You should stop thinking about getting hooked up with girls and possibly getting laid. We have a mission tomorrow. Think about that. And if you didn't see that coming, Odd, I think we're going to have to put you through training all over again."

Odd grumbled and mumbled and grabbed the sponge from the ground. He threw it half-heartedly in Ulrich's direction and lay back down on the couch. The sponge landed with a soft splat at Ulrich's feet.

"Yep," Ulrich said, picking up the sponge from the ground, "more training for sure."

-------------

"This sucks," Yumi said the next morning, chewing on a bowl of fruit while watching early morning cartoons on Cartoon Network. It was all kiddy stuff and she wasn't too interested. She turned away from the TV and looked at the black-haired Aelita in the kitchen. Aelita was fixing herself a bowl of fruit as well.

"What sucks?" Aelita said, without looking up from peeling an apple. "The cartoons?"

Yumi put her bowl down on the coffee table next to her feet, which were propped up. "Yeah that. And the fact that we can't go anywhere because we are stuck looking like the aliases we came up with. And that means no gym. No Sam. No Theo."

Aelita looked up from her apple finally. "Yumi, would you get over Theo? He's no good for you. Honestly. I mean, he's hot, sure. I'll give him that. But really, he is such a flirt."

"So?"

"So…" Aelita said, peeling the rest of the red skin off the apple and proceeding to chop it up into pieces. "I think maybe you should get to know that new guy, Ulrich, some more. He is just as hot as Theo."

Yumi groaned and let her head flop over onto a nearby pillow. "I know. All these hot guys and no Yumi to see them," she said into the pillow. Aelita gave a little laugh and, taking her bowl with both hands, joined Yumi on the couch. Aelita then popped a watermelon piece into her mouth and started chewing.

"Speaking of guys," Yumi said, straightening back up into a sitting position, "I personally thought Jeremiah was pretty cute. Wouldn't you agree?" Yumi looked at Aelita with a playful smile. Aelita's eyes widened. Then she quickly stuffed her mouth full of fruit.

"Muff mmm hmm mmm guff muff?" Aelita said.

"That's what I thought," Yumi nodded knowingly. Aelita quickly swallowed all the fruit down.

"What did I say?" she asked Yumi.

"You agreed with me."

"What! No I did not! I let out a string of incoherent sounds that weren't even words!"

"Sounded like you agreed to me."

"I so did not."

"Well, can you deny the fact that you were checking him out when we were getting briefed for the mission?"

Aelita's face turned red and she stuffed her mouth full of fruit again.

Yumi sighed. "There you go again, stuffing your face when it comes to a difficult question. You know, there won't be a bowl of fruit there if we ever get caught and get interrogated."

Aelita managed to swallow the fruit down again without choking herself. "I was checking Jeremiah to see if he could have potentially carried any weapons."

"No," Yumi said with a smile, "I was doing that. You were just checking him out. And I didn't teach you to check for weapons in five separate glances. I taught you to check the suspect in one quick sweep."

"I did not look at him five times."

"Wanna bet?"

Aelita sighed. "No."

Yumi grinned. "Good answer." Yumi stretched out and then took an apple square out of her fruit bowl. She chewed it and swallowed. Then she said, "But, you know, Aelita, I thought we had settled on the fact that guys were shrimpy, insignificant beings that needed to be run over by trucks."

"We did."

"So, can we run Jeremiah over with a truck?"

"Can we run Ulrich over with a truck?"

Yumi sighed. Aelita sometimes could get smart-alecky. Her partner's point taken, Yumi helped herself to some more fruit as she watched baby Bugs Bunny play around in a sand box.

After a while, Aelita asked in a bored tone, "What is this?"

"Baby Looney Tunes," Yumi informed her. She held out the remote control to Aelita.

-------------

Yumi showed up at the building with Aelita by her side at three o'clock exactly. When they got to the top floor, it was 3:02. _Ding_, went the elevator dutifully and the two girls stepped out.

"You're late," Ulrich said in greeting, busy slipping a small gun in one of his boots. Odd was next to him slipping the same type of gun into his pocket. The gun was small enough so that it didn't show from the outside.

"Fashionably late," Yumi corrected him, pushing her green-rimmed sunglasses up to the top of her head. Ulrich looked up and almost did a double take. The dark and mysterious "Yuliana Imshi" was standing before him with her hands on her hips. She was in a button up lime green sweater with the sleeves rolled up and the top three buttons unbuttoned. That was matched in a green plaid skirt that went all the way down to her knees. Yumi stood tapping her one of her feet, which were in Green converse.

"Are you finished checking me out now?" Yumi said without a smile. Her hair was in a tight ponytail behind her, swishing the back of her neck.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Ulrich asked her with almost contempt as Odd glanced up and saw them. Odd's face froze.

"For goodness sakes, we aren't breaking into a high security nuclear weapons' lab," Aelita said in exasperation. She was in faded jeans and pink heels to match her pink zip up top. She also had sunglasses that she was twirling around in her fingers. They stopped moving, however, when Jeremie came in. Jeremie was carrying a tray of weapons for the girls. He froze in his tracks when he saw the two assassins.

"It's to look casual. I don't want to look suspicious," Yumi said to the three guys standing there in shock, pronouncing every word as if they had hearing problems.

"I don't look suspicious," Odd said quickly. He was in khakis and a collared light blue shirt which wasn't tucked in.

"You don't, but he does," Yumi said, nodding at Ulrich. Ulrich was in black pants and a semi-tight black shirt. Yumi noticed his muscles underneath, showing slightly.

"What? People don't go around wearing all black once in a while?" Ulrich asked with a scowl. Yumi rolled her eyes.

Aelita sashayed over to Jeremie and leaned over the tray, inspecting his selections of weapons. She took two small guns that Ulrich and Odd had just equipped themselves with and tossed one to Yumi. Yumi caught it one handed and then turned to the two guys. "Do you mind?" she asked them, making a hand motion that signaled for them to turn around. They grumbled and did so. Yumi slipped the small gun into the band that was around her thigh under her skirt.

Aelita was still over were Jeremie was. She also selected a small dagger, which she slid into her jeans pocket. "Thanks, hun," she said, turning to go back to where Yumi was, flashing Jeremie a smile over her shoulder.

"Okay," Ulrich said, very peeved. "Now that we've wasted practically half an hour, lets get down to business. We'll cover the four most popular arcades and cyber cafes today. We'll split up. Odd and Lina, you'll cover two and me and Yuliana will cover two. Got it? Good, let's go."

**A/N: The next chapter will be much better, I promise. ACTION GALORE! Tee hee. Thanks for reading!**


	6. Trickery

**A/N: Thank you once again for all the fantabulous reviews! You guys just make me so so happy. I took Luna's advice (thank you, Luna) and did a little puzzle thing for you guys this chapter. Might not be as good as the other ones, but I tried. Heh... And yeah, Luna, they are liars. GAH. Also, thank you everyone else and yes, Lucy McGonagle, Odd is a horny git. Psshahaha...anyway, yay for Jo reviewing! I love you and I hope I'm doing an okay job. (I'll mention the thing I missed later, since I already wrote this and all...hehe...sorry...) SO, anyway, thank you so so much for the lovely reviews! Read and enjoy and don't hesitate to leave another review!**

"So, nothing weird has been going on lately?" Ulrich asked the man behind the desk that was overseeing the cyber café at the moment. Yumi listened to them chat with half an ear. She was next to Ulrich, leaning on the desk with her elbows, her back to the desk. Her eyes traveled around the room casually. Many people were in this café, eyes glued to the glowing screens in front of them. Yumi almost felt sorry for them. They practically had no life. At least as an assassin, Yumi could get out, get fresh air, and get exercise.

"Nope, not really."

"Huh, interesting…well, thank you for your time. Maybe we'll come back here sometime…"

A row of computers caught Yumi's eye. "Hey, what happened to those machines?"

The man behind the desk leaned over a bit to see what Yumi was pointing to. "Ah," he said with a sigh as he saw the empty row of black-screened computers in the otherwise packed cyber café. "I don't know what's been going on with those computers lately. All of them were hit by a virus that completely screwed them up a few days ago. We're still working on getting them fixed."

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Well, again, thank you for your time."

"All right, glad I could help."

"So, hit by a virus…a whole row of computers…" Yumi said as she and Ulrich walked to Ulrich's car parked on the street right in front of the café.

"Could be related. Could not be related. Who knows? We still have the arcade to hit so let's get going and talk about it later."

"Don't I get at least a little congratulations for figuring out the virus infected computers?"

Ulrich gave Yumi a blank stare. "Are you kidding me?" Yumi stared back just as blankly. Ulrich rolled his eyes. "You'll…get congratulations when we complete the mission. For now, get in the car. We need to get to the arcade."

"Fine."

**4LW4Y5**

A shadow flitted over the rooftops, following the direction Ulrich's car was going on the road down below. Five seconds later, nine other shadows followed. In a blink of an eye, the shadows were gone.

**W47CH**

Odd bounced around in front of one of the big blocky old-fashioned arcade game machines. He was busy shooting down objects that were blocking his craft's path.

"Odd," Aelita said in an annoyed voice. "We aren't here to _play_ the games; we're here to _ask_ about them."

"We did," Odd said, his tongue coming halfway out the side of his mouth in concentration.

"Correction: _I_ did. You just played this the whole time."

"So? I'm _investigating_."

"Uh! ODD!" Aelita leaned against the side of the arcade game. She could feel it shaking as Odd moved the control stick violently. "Anyway, if you haven't noticed. I'm finished now with asking. We can go now. We still have one other place to go, you know."

"You mean you are finished with _flirting_. Yeah, I saw you and that guy behind the desk. You two looked about ready to go out on a date."

Furious, Aelita pushed off of the arcade game and clunked Odd on the side of the head. "OW!"

"Well, you deserved it," Aelita said, watching Odd lose a life because of her. "You hardly know me at all and you are condemning my ways of extracting information."

"Oh, so now it's a way of 'extracting information'. Maybe I should try it sometime with a hot chick and get myself a date in the process."

"You can never do that if we don't ever get OUT OF HERE."

"Just hold on one second, cranky pants. I've almost got…the…high…score…" Odd's voice became strained as he yanked the control stick this way and that.

"What did you just call me?"

**Y0UR**

Yumi and Ulrich's stop at the arcade was quicker than they both thought it would be.

"So, what'd we get again?"

Ulrich sighed and repeated the information they had compiled. "There are a lot of regulars that come to the arcade often but only one of them has beaten all the games with a crazy ass high score, which none of them can beat. He's legendary, some say. But, the problem is, he's remained anonymous this whole time. No one knows who he is."

"Do you think that maybe this guy has some connection with the guy that threatened us with the tape?"

"Highly unlikely, but I'm not ready to fully dismiss the notion. I just wish we had more information about this guy…"

Yumi and Ulrich were walking down the street back to Ulrich's car. Yumi was just marveling in the fact that they were having a semi-normal conversation without bickering at each other when someone hissed at them from the dark alleyway they were passing. She and Ulrich looked up, attention caught, at the same time.

A dark shaded figure was leaning just in the shadows of the alleyway. It turned its face up to look at the two of them and Yumi could only make out half the figure's face. It was an unfeeling and tough face.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you needed more information about this mysterious guy."

"You don't even know what guy we're talking about," Ulrich said, eying the stranger tensely.

"Wanna bet?" The figure never changed its flat tone and never moved. "The one that happens to beat all the arcade games possible with an impossibly high score that can never be breached? That guy, right?"

Yumi and Ulrich said nothing and stared unblinkingly at the figure.

"Thought so." The figure's eyes blinked. "If you would like, I could give you more information about this guy that you want so much to know about."

"What's the catch?" Yumi asked sharply.

"No catch. Just come with me." The figure moved for the first time, beckoning the two of them into the shadows with it. It stepped away from the light, becoming just a black shape.

Ulrich and Yumi exchanged glances. Then, without warning, Ulrich stepped forward in front of Yumi, blocking her way. "I'll go."

Yumi pushed Ulrich's body away from in front of her. "What do you think you are doing? _Protecting me?_ I'm going too."

Ulrich turned and his eyes flashed warning as they drilled into Yumi's. "Don't argue and just do what I say. Stay here."

"I am not a pussy."

"I didn't say you were. Now stop picking a fight with me."

"You know what, Ulrike, I'm just as good as you. You don't need to waste your worry on me."

"Who said I was worrying about you?"

"Well, you're the one that wants me to stay behind because it's _too dangerous._"

"You two married?" the figure suddenly asked in an amused tone. _This is going to be easy…_

Ulrich and Yumi's heads snapped in the stranger's direction. "What did you say?" Yumi asked in a dangerously low voice.

The figure appeared to shrug. "Well, I was just wondering. You two are arguing like an old married couple."

One of Ulrich's hands tightened into a fist. "We are _not_ married and never will be. Now, just give us the information or leave."

The figure stepped farther into the shadows. "Follow me." Then, without waiting for them, it disappeared into the alleyway.

"Last chance, Ulrike von Gradwitz. Are you sure this isn't a trap?"

"Are you sure you can handle it if it is a trap?"

Without saying anything more, the two walked forward into the alleyway at the same time.

**84CK**

"Almost…DAMN IT!" Odd threw up his hands as the screen blacked out and then came back on as the high score list. "It's all your fault, Lina. I could have gotten the highest score if you hadn't hit me on the head and caused major pain, also distracting me, I might add, and making me lose that precious life. I mean, I was this close…_this close!_"

Aelita leaned closed to look at the list. "Well, at least you got second, Odd." Then she looked at the highest score. "Ooo, man, I don't think you could have beat the highest score even with that life I made you lose."

"What do you mean!" Odd said, stomping back up to the machine, ready to defend himself. He took one look at the highest score and his mouth dropped open. "Holy crap. That is a huge number."

"Hmm…"

"That guy must have cheated…somehow. But how do you cheat on this old low-tech gaming system? It's not like they have any codes or anything for it…"

Aelita was looking something other than the score column now. She was looking at the initials column. The first thing she noticed was that the highest score's initials were AAA. And then she saw the three blinking boxes underneath it, waiting for Odd to enter in his initials. It also said AAA. Aelita gasped. _What are the chances?_

"Hurry up, Odd. Enter in your initials and let's get going. Forget about the other place we're supposed to be checking up on. Let's go meet Ulrike and Yuli."

"Fine, fine," Odd grumbled, still devastated by his loss. "At least I can comfort myself with the fact that I know that the person with the highest score cheated," Odd said under his breath.

**0R 3L53...**

Their footsteps echoed slightly off the brick walls that were pressing in on them. They had no idea where the mysterious man had gone when he had disappeared into the shadows like a wisp of smoke gone too high in the atmosphere. They both tried to pretend to the other that they were completely confident; unease filled the space between despite their efforts.

Something moved behind them. Ulrich whipped around, eyes darting. The light that came from the open street looked and seemed far away now. Nothing suggested to him that anything had moved.

Yumi stopped, disliking growing from the situation with every step that she took from the very beginning. "I can't see him anymore. I think he's just left us," she said in a low voice that Ulrich seemed to think was loud in the surrounding silence. "Let's head back. No use sticking around."

Suddenly, there was no more silence anymore. The air was filled with the sound of rustling cloth and feet landing in crouches all around them. Ulrich and Yumi instinctively backed away from where they were standing, ending up bumping into each other. They, however, were too preoccupied to noticing that they were touching, back to back. They were looking at the circle of black figures that had just straightened up around them in the dim light.

"I'm sorry," said a familiar voice from somewhere to Ulrich's left. "I lied. There is a catch. You have to die first."

**A/N: Haha...I told you there was going to be action. More action in next chapter!**


	7. Ambush

"Okay, they definitely should have been back by now," Aelita finally said from where she was at the hologram table, sitting in one chair and propping her feet up with the chair right next to it. "Something must have gone wrong." She hadn't wanted to say anything because she had been hoping for another chance to see Jeremiah, but they had waited for what seemed like a very long time already and Jeremiah nor her partners had appeared at the doors in that time.

"They must just be doing some very thorough investigating. Don't worry, I know how Ulrike likes to get."

"And I know how Yuliana likes to get and it's exactly the opposite. She doesn't like to keep people waiting and she is very on time."

"Like she demonstrated for us nicely earlier this afternoon, I'm sure."

Aelita gave Odd a withering glance. Then she turned quickly to look back out the long window that practically made up the whole wall to the left. "It's already pretty dark out. I say we go look for them. We know where they went. It's not like we don't have an location to start."

Odd sighed and finally gave in. Although he didn't let it show, he was more worried than he let off. He knew "Ulrike", all right. He knew how stubborn he was. How he always refused to give in. As Odd and Aelita took the elevator down the ground floor, he was picturing the different scenarios that could have taken place to keep them: something could have happened between Yuliana and Ulrich, something could have happened to Yuliana and Ulrich, something could have happened individually to Yuliana and Ulrich. With all this swirling in his head, he didn't notice where he was going until he got there. He realized he had led Aelita into the parking lot structure where his car was. Shrugging to himself, he continued to lead her around the parking floor, toward where his car was parked in the back. Then he lost himself in thought again.

Where should he check first? Arcade or cyber café? Probably the arcade, because that was the farthest from here.

Unbeknownst to Odd, Aelita had stopped in her tracks and strained her ears to block out Odd's footsteps. She eyed the cars around her and her eyes widened when they settled on the black shiny car Odd was walking toward. "Odd…"

That would work, because on the way back, if they weren't at the arcade, they would stop by the cyber café. Odd didn't hear Aelita saying his name in a scared voice.

"Odd…" Aelita said louder, slightly panicked. Was she really hearing what she thought she did?

But what if they weren't at either place? They did have an independent means of transportation. So they could have strayed from their destinations. Odd frowned. That wasn't a very Ulrich like thing to do.

"ODD, STOP!" Aelita screeched, running forward in spite of herself and dragging Odd off balance by the arm. Odd's first instinct was to bat her off until he heard the ticking ringing through the echoes of Aelita's scream that Aelita had heard a few seconds ago. His stomach dropped sickeningly as the ticking turned into a steady beep.

"Run!" Odd said, pushing Aelita into a run in front of him as he started to move as well.

Behind them, less than a few feet away, Odd's car exploded in a violent burst of flames and scraps of metal. Odd and Aelita flew into the air and landed almost on the other side of the parking lot floor with the impact of the explosion.

They both made no move of getting up. They just stared in silence at what would have been their death. Silence, that is, until Odd started a string of curses just as flaming as his car now was.

**F1GH7**

Yumi had reacted immediately, almost cutting off the figure that spoke with her movement. Before anybody could send her an invitation, she had sent the two figures right in front of her toppling over with a dagger in each chest, one of them the one she had taken from Jeremie, one of them her own. That seemed, however, to be the invitation for everyone else to start moving, and so they did.

In a flash, Ulrich had his small gun in his hand. As he fired off shots in rapid succession, he reached inside his other boot for the other gun he had slid in there. He caught a colorful flash, which must have been Yuli. He thanked her mentally for wearing something other than all black. At least he wouldn't be accidentally killing his ally. Now he would just have to trust her not to mistake him for whoever was attacking them.

_Trust her_, he though grimly. _So now I decide to trust her. Not the best timing, I must admit…_

Yumi punched one assailant in the face hard while she kicked at another one in the chest that was coming for her from behind, her skirt swishing. In one fluid motion, she also had her gun in her hand that had been in the band around her thigh and she fired shot after shot. An excellent markswomen, all the ninja like fighters crumpled as her bullets hit their mark, sometimes more than once. In no time, Ulrich and Yumi were standing side by side again, guns held out in front of them at the ready, panting, and looking at each of their attackers.

"I told you it was a bad idea," Yumi said accusingly, eyes still on her opponents who were mostly groaning on the ground.

"Well, I'm glad you handled it without getting yourself killed," Ulrich said, trying to catch his breath from all his fancy footwork he had done, dodging and shooting.

"I'll consider that a compliment," Yumi said stoically, lowering her gun a little bit as she looked at the bodies on the ground. "I've got to say, that almost seemed too easy."

Ulrich grunted in agreement. Suddenly, something in his pants pocket rang in an obnoxious (it now seemed like) ring tone. Yumi looked at him warily as he checked his cell phone. He was surprised to find it Odd's number.

"What?" he said irritably, putting away one of his guns.

"Where the hell are you? It's practically dark out and because you guys are taking so god damn long, we were planning on looking for you." Ulrich tried to cut into Odd's yelling but Odd plunged on heedless, "And because we wanted to go looking for you, we practically got killed because my car just fucking exploded!"

At about the same time, Yumi groaned and seemed to slump a little beside Ulrich. "Shit," she said bitterly, "they're wearing vests."

Ulrich watched before his eyes as the eight of the people he had just "shot dead" got up onto their feet and pulled out long wicked looking swords.

He sighed loudly, forgetting that he was still on the phone. "It looks like we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."

**70**

"The old fashioned way?" Odd said, furious, into his cell phone. Aelita watched helplessly as the flames that had at first engulfed Odd's car happily started to die down. "What the hell do you mean, Ulrich? What are you talking about? Ulrich? Ulrich? Answer me! ULRICH!" Aelita heard the sound of sudden loud static on the other end. She looked up, alarmed.

Odd's face was stricken. "They were somehow and for some reason attacked. I know it. I heard the sounds of a struggle going on when he stopped talking to me. And that must be linked to my car just blowing up."

Aelita nodded, a little distracted. "Who's Ulrich?"

Odd immediately looked up. He seemed to Aelita to be a bit nervous all of a sudden. "Oh, no one, no one. I tend to start calling people by the wrong names when I get all emotional like this, which is not often, let me assure you," he said in a rush. Afterwards his head sank to be cradled by his hands.

"Uh-huh," Aelita said skeptically under her breath, turning to look back at the wrecked car. She was itching to go help Yumi and fight, but she didn't want to bother or leave Odd at the moment. So she just sat there next to him in silence, stretching out the arm she had landed on slightly and feeling it twinge with a small amount of pain.

**5URV1V3**

Both sides reacted at the same time. Ulrich struck first, however. As everyone leapt toward each other, Ulrich threw his cell phone with all his might at the one closest to him. The electronic device hit the figure squarely in the face, knocking him flat on his back. The figure's head bounced off the hard ground rather violently, knocking the ninja out. Yumi's eyebrows raised even as she ran forward. That was…practical.

Yumi's way was more traditional. She sidestepped what seemed like over a dozen attempts to slice her to pieces, looking as if she was performing an intricate dance rather than fighting off a few warriors. As she twirled to the last ninja in the bunch, she extended her arm at the end of her spin and knocked the guy out with a blow to the back of the head with the butt of her gun. As the guy fell, she caught his sword, which was falling with him. At the same time, Ulrich had managed to kick and punch his way through to the enemy whom he had knocked out with his cell phone and stolen his sword.

Yumi and Ulrich hefted their weapons with expertise and eyed the six figures left. "Much better," Ulrich commented and charged forward.

Yumi smashed the first assailant that came at her into the nearest brick wall, then grabbed the unconscious man and crashed him into the next one coming at her from her left. They fell back in a crumpled heap as the second man struggled to push away his buddy's body. Then, Yumi had to duck out of the way. Her last assaulter was much more agile, coming at her with a fancy thrust. She had hoped she wouldn't have to use her sword, but it looked like she was going to have to. Gritting her teeth, her ponytail swinging crazily, her sword made impact with her opponent's in a nail-biting clash.

Ulrich was having a three on one fight, meanwhile. On his toes at all times, he remembered the advice his boss had given him when he had first started sparring more than one person at a time. _Never get sandwiched in between. Always have them all on one side of you._ Ulrich performed a complex sequence of steps only to find himself to be the center of a circle that the deadly three had made around him. He scowled and proceeded to kick his way out.

Meanwhile, the guy that had gone down because of his buddy getting pushed on top of him finally pushed the weight off with a grunt. He groped for a sword (he had dropped his while falling) and found one. Then he glanced around and narrowed his eyes when he saw Yumi. Without her seeing, he edged away from his fallen comrade and closed in…

Ulrich managed to crescent kick one of them quickly, who staggered away, losing grip of his weapon. Ulrich jumped up and grabbed the extra sword with his free hand. Then he quickly became a spinning blade of death. The three opponents were down in no time, heavy gashes spurting blood everywhere. Ulrich wiped the sweat from his face and looked up just in time to see…

Yumi was spinning like she was a professional dancer. The guy she was fighting was tiring quickly, all the spinning before him making him dizzy, making it harder for him to tell when and where she was going to strike next. He made a few random jabs, hoping some would get her, but she seemed to slip away from each attempt. He was growing desperate as he parried, just barely, another thrust from this crazy girl…

Then, Yumi faltered and yelled, clutching her right arm. The warrior who had been felled by his own teammate got his revenge. He had slashed at her as soon as he knew he had a clear shot. She had been spinning away from him at the exact moment, but the blade had slid across her arm near her shoulder. Yumi's arm grew limp as she clenched her jaw to try and ignore the pain. When she pulled her other hand away, it was stained with her own blood…

The two assailants had a fresh wave of confidence and they flew at her at the same time. Just before they both reached her, Ulrich ran up out of nowhere and practically body slammed one, who went flying farther into the alleyway and landed a few feet away, a sword protruding from his chest.

The one that still came at Yumi was the one that had cut her. She narrowed her eyes and kicked his sword out from his hand with one foot then swung the other around that caught him full in the stomach. Gasping, he spun away, clutching the part of his body that had just been hurt. Soon he was lying dead on the ground, the sword Yumi had stolen buried in his back. Yumi grimaced and thought grimly, _revenge is sweet…_

In a flash, Ulrich was next to her, his hand instinctively on top of hers over where she had been wounded. His other arm had wrapped around her waist unknowingly. "We need to get back," Ulrich said, supporting and leading Yumi quickly out of the alleyway. Yumi thought with dark humor that they must have looked odd, all bloodied up and sweating but walking on the street just the same. Ulrich didn't hesitate when he passed his cell phone, lying broken on the ground. He'll get a new one later.

_I will NOT tolerate either of you touching me, understood?_ Yumi realized how feeble and stupid and childish that command she had made, seemingly ages ago, was. She now found that she didn't mind Ulrike being so close to her, touching her. She snapped her brain away from what she was thinking. This was the closest she had ever been to him and she liked it?

They managed to hobble to the car and drive off without any more incidents.

**A/N: So, now that you've thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, let me say a few things. First off, congrats, all you smart smart people. Yes it did say "always watch your back or else..." GOOD JOB! Secondly, thank you to all my sweet sweet people that reviewed last chapter (thanks, aliice, for reviewing twice, tee hee). Third of all, dongsang, you discovered the thing I forgot to include in the couple of chapters I wrote. And since dongsang pointed it out, I'll just tell you here: _Ulrike_ wears sunglasses at all times, or else Yumi would recongize him as _Ulrich, _got it? Okay, so, now that I've kind of corrected my little mistake (which I feel uber bad for), pwease drop a review! Thanks for reading!**


	8. Job

Aelita dabbed anti-bacterial liquid onto Yumi's cut. It was pretty deep, but Yumi was tough enough to be able to still move about like she wasn't hurt at all. Yumi winced slightly and Aelita immediately blew as hard as she could on the wet cut, making the pain lessen. Inside, she glowed a little, thankful that Yumi could trust Aelita enough to show visibly that she was in pain around her. Aelita put a little more of the stuff on, blowing all the while and apologizing about the sting, and then put a clean cloth around it, tying it tight again.

"Thanks, Lita," Yumi said with a warm smile. "You've always been good at the doctoring stuff."

Aelita grunted but started to glow inwardly again. She smiled back at Yumi in the mirror as she put the bottle of anti-bacterial liquid back in the cabinet. "Good thing too, eh? Who knew you'd be drawing on it this much?"

Yumi's smile faded a little. "Yeah, who knew?" she agreed half-heartedly, trudging out into the small living room of their apartment. "I can't believe that I let that guy get me."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, Yumi. Really, I wouldn't have done any better than you. I probably would have been cut up and diced into a million pieces if we had traded spots."

"But…"

"Yumi," Aelita said, her voice becoming tinged with warning, "drop it, okay? Don't let it distract you."

Yumi sighed and looked out the nearby window. "So, is your arm okay, speaking of injuries?"

Aelita nodded and stretched out the arm experimentally. "A little kinked up and bruised, but its fine. What concerned me more at the moment was that we had just been the target of an attempted killing."

"Do you think that the mysterious ninja-like fighters and the bomb are related?"

Aelita nodded immediately. "Either that or it was coincidence and I am pretty sure it was _not_ coincidence."

Suddenly, Aelita's cell rang, which was right next to Yumi's on the counter. Yumi had not touched her phone since Theo had called days ago. And she was not particularly sorry that she had "forgotten" to call back.

Aelita trudged over to the cell phone, quickly double checked the number and picked up. "Hey, Sam, what's up…oh…oh really…huh…interesting…well, we're…well…I'm sure we can…yeah…okay…we'll be there." Then she hung up.

"Well," Yumi said with an raised eyebrow, "that was the weirdest one sided conversation I have ever heard."

Aelita smothered a giggle. The look on her face was stony seriousness as she put down her cell again. "Don't joke with me right now, Yumi. This is…bad…in a way."

"Then throw off the suspense. What is it?"

Aelita glanced at the clock on the wall nearby. "We've got only a couple of hours. We have to get going to get everything done…" She started to go through her purse, which was right next to the cell phones.

Yumi became stern. "Aelita, stop throwing me off. What is going on?"

Aelita sighed and finally turned back around to face her agitated partner. "We've…we've got a job."

"WHAT!"

**PUR3**

"Yumi, Yumi, Yumi, you are _almost_ late."

Sam smirked at Yumi with one eyebrow cocked. Yumi really didn't feel like joking at the moment. "Oh, haha," she said sarcastically. "Now, where's the client?"

"Where they usually are," Sam said with a smile that was hidden from the lack of light in the room. "I'm glad you could take the job, Yumi, because the pay off is nice."

"And why did he tell you what the pay off was?"

"Because, he had to get me interested. He had to persuade me to let him use you and Lita. If it was some wimpy, good-for-nothing job, I would have kicked him out of my gym."

"It isn't your gym, Sam."

Sam sighed and waved her hand dismissively. "Blah blah, I get the point. Just go in and get the particulars."

Yumi gave her friend one last hard look through her goggles before she walked into the room in front of her. It was her "office", of sorts, but one that Sam ran practically for her. Sam also doubled as a guard…a highly skilled fighting guard at that.

But at the moment, Yumi wasn't concerned about anything except for the fact that she would have to pull this mission off while she was in the middle of another mission.

_Thanks for the help, Sam. Thanks…a lot._

**C01NC1D3NC3**

"So, where are we going?" Aelita asked, a bit annoyed that her partner had still not told her what they were _exactly_ doing.

"We are going there," Yumi said, pointing at the large multi-story building that had just materialized in the darkness. They had just reached the end of the alleyway.

"Isn't that the…"

"Yes, and it makes me just a little suspicious."

They crossed the street as two black streaks and disappeared into the huge shadow that the building cast. Aelita knew that the tone her partner had used meant that she was more than just "a little" suspicious.

"How are we getting in?" Aelita asked, not wanting to bring up the subject again although it was now constantly nagging at her brain.

"From the roof. The floor we want is the topmost one."

"This just gets more interesting by the second, doesn't it?"

Yumi chose not to answer that question. Both her and Aelita shot up grappling hooks. After a few seconds, they pulled a couple of times to make sure it was caught fast. Then they started to climb, hand over hand, quickly and easily pulling themselves upward. They made sure to widely skirt any windows they passed.

"So, before we go in and it becomes vital for us to be totally silent," Aelita started as soon as she and Yumi landed in crouches on the rooftop, the wind stronger and colder up here than on the ground level far below, "what exactly are we going to be doing?"

Finally, Yumi pulled off the peculiar black backpack she had been carrying and showed it to Aelita. It was empty. "We are stealing the blueprints and any actual parts of a new, highly dangerous weapon that this particular organization is working on. The client didn't actual give me the name for the weapon, but he described it pretty well and it sounds like a nasty little big gun."

Aelita nodded, blowing some of her again pink hair from out of her face. "Typical."

"We also have to kill the weapon's specialist. I didn't really find a definite reason for doing this, but the guy wants it done. So we do it."

Aelita's head snapped up. For some reason, that worried her a little bit. However, she brushed it off nervously, not wanting to screw up another mission. "Okay, easy," she said instead. "Do we know where he lives?"

Yumi nodded. "I was given the address. But first, the weapons, then the guy."

Aelita didn't even have a chance to nod before they loped to the trapdoor, picked the lock, opened it and slipped into pitch darkness inside.

**A/N: So, so, I'm pretty sure this is the only story I haven't made the annoucement on: updates are going to come slower than before because school is almost starting (that was fast!) and my internet time is now restricted, thanks to my dad. XP So, sorry, folks. Thank you so much for all my reviews! I'm so glad you enjoy the story so far. It is going to get a bit interesting... Luna, Luna, Luna, what am I going to do with you? You are so techincal! Yumi changed her hair, remember? Please tell me that's good enough for you. You bring up a good point, Aelitagurl, about the writing styles. The JxA will come a little later but I'm dropping hints now. (Can you find where in this chapter?) And YAY! Painin Uranus, you're back to review my stories! Well, Anime Bubbles's story, but I'm continuing it...oh whatever. Just thanks for reviewing. I'll get to reading the repost of your story when I get time. Thank you all my anonymous reviewers and keep on reviewing! Your support is absolutely ADORED! Thanks for reading!**


	9. Discovery

Yumi didn't forget things easily. She had trained herself not to. Besides, if she had a problematic memory, she'd have been dead ten times over. Her boots not making a sound, she crept down the hallways of the floor with Aelita dead behind her, covering her back. In this manner, they wound their way to where Yumi was told the weapons lab was. And Yumi was right on the money.

"You know," Aelita couldn't help but whisper to Yumi as Yumi punched the long, correct code into the keypad. "This guy seems to have a lot of the information needed to do it himself. Or if he had spies get the information, why couldn't he have just used the spies?"

"Because we are the best in what we do. And he wanted to recruit us to his organization, but I declined the offer. He looked smug and said to think about it. As if." And with that, Yumi put a finger to her lips as the door released its lock and slid open with a slithering sound. Yumi and Aelita leapt inside and the door closed behind them.

A single lamp was turned on where it sat on a long desk with many random parts strewn everywhere. Yumi picked her way forward, being careful not to disturb other interesting looking weapons on the ground around them. Aelita followed a little bit behind.

Yumi immediately found the blueprint, slipping her goggles onto the top of her head for a better look. It was the blueprint all right, although she didn't quite understand all the weird guidelines. Oh well, it didn't matter. It wasn't as if it was her job to build the thing. However, she kept looking at the blueprint for reference as she scanned the long table. She could recognize a few of the parts already crudely assembled on the table. Extending her legs with the grace of a tightrope walker, she picked her way to the separate parts.

**4N**

"Nothing like a middle of the night snack," Odd said, already sinking his teeth into one doughnut. In his other hand, he was still clutching two more of the sweet snack. "Mmm…delicious."

Ulrich gave his partner a sideways glance as he sipped his coffee, his sunglasses riding on the top of his head. The liquid swirled around in his mouth, shockingly bitter. He swallowed it slowly, savoring the power of the drink that would make him stay awake for a while yet. In his other hand, he was holding Odd's coffee, which Odd had run out of hands to hold.

Jeremie was on the other side of the munching Odd. He was also holding a doughnut that he was waiting to finish when he got back to the weapon's lab. He was holding a thick Styrofoam cup of tea in the other hand. He did not attempt to bring either up to his mouth; there was always a chance he might miss in the dark.

"Ulrich, you really should have gotten some," Odd said loudly, punching Ulrich in the ribs in a friendly manner. Ulrich dodged just in time.

"Shut up, Odd. I wasn't hungry. And you almost just made me spill coffee all over myself." Odd snorted, obviously caring less.

"Behave yourself, you two," Jeremie said in a softer voice than the others. "It is a rare occasion indeed that I am letting you two take food and drink into the weapons lab. If you guys weren't here on my request to keep me company while working on this really complicated gun, I would never have let you in for fear you might trash the place."

"Do you really not trust us that much, Jer?" Odd said, mouth full of doughnut. Jeremie rolled his eyes and sighed. He stopped, along with the other two, in front of the weapon's lab doors and reached out his hand to punch in the code.

**D4NG3R0U5**

Yumi's ears suddenly pricked up and her head whipped around. If her once again black hair hadn't been matted underneath the beanie she was wearing, it would have swung around and hit her in the face. Her hand was in the middle of reaching for the last part on the table that she wanted. She heard the small beeps of the keypad on the other side of the door.

Aelita's head whipped around too, her slight body immediately tense. She held up the gun she had been holding loosely in her right hand up to eye level toward the door. Then she gave Yumi one quick glance saying, _what are we going to do?_

Yumi swiped the last part and stuffed it into the backpack, rolling up the blueprint quickly as well and stuffing that with everything else. Then she looked around as she yanked closed the backpack. She glanced up and saw a long rectangular looking tube running through the room near the ceiling to her left. She snapped, getting Aelita's attention and pointed at the vent. As one, they both sprinted toward it.

**D15C0V3RY**

Ulrich walked into the room first and saw the two black clad girls sprinting to the vent, one with a bulging backpack. Suddenly, the room was filled with yells. Yanking his head downward, his sunglasses slipped down into place over his eyes as he sprinted after them and grabbed the one with the backpack from behind. The girl cursed and ran him backward into the nearest table, scattering equipment everywhere. Ulrich gritted his teeth as he felt his back crack. It felt good and not good at the same time.

Aelita's hand with the gun was up and ready to fire at Ulrich but she was so caught up in trying to get a lock on him without hitting her partner that she forgot the most important aspect: to keep moving herself. In an instant, she was down with both Odd and Jeremie on top of her. Odd wrenched the gun away from her, firing a few shots at random in the struggle. The bullets left little holes in the ceiling.

Yumi wriggled smoothly out of the backpack and flung it around at full force. The objects inside clunked together loudly as it hit Ulrich painfully in the side. Ulrich backed up a few steps, rubbing his arm and side and then charged at Yumi as she fumbled for a weapon. He pinned her up against a wall, trying to get her to stay. Sure that he got her, he watched as Odd and Jeremie tried to secure the girl with pink hair.

Suddenly, Yumi pushed herself off the wall while at the same time taking off her goggles and crashing it into the side of Ulrich's head. Ulrich fell back, clutching at his head as he felt a tiny trickle of blood start to flow. Growling, he groped around on the floor for something to hit her back with…

Yumi threw her broken goggles at Odd's head. Odd turned around, distracted, and cursed at her. Aelita took advantage of Odd off guard, grabbing him from behind and ramming him face first into the nearest wall. Odd yelled in pain and Aelita was about to pull him back to do it again when Jeremie caught her around the waist from behind and pulled her back. Aelita screamed savagely and tried to beat at Jeremie behind her with her fists, not quite reaching him.

Yumi skid to a stop and finally got her hands on her two daggers. She smiled, almost sweetly, at Ulrich and then threw the two daggers at him full force. No one had been known to escape from when she threw her blades.

Ulrich's hand closed around the butt of the gun Aelita had dropped just at that moment. Twirling it around smoothly, he shot at the two daggers coming at him. He hit them directly on the mark, the daggers flying harmlessly down onto the ground to join the various other things the five of them had knocked over in the struggle. Yumi gaggled at Ulrich and then narrowed her eyes.

Ulrich pushed himself up and sprinted forward as he saw Yumi do the same. Yumi swooped low, however, trying to recollect her daggers. Ulrich tried to grab her but missed and instead grabbed her beanie. He yanked it off her, pulling out a few of her hairs with it. Yumi winced but didn't cry out as she slid, with one dagger in hand, to a stop on the ground. Only when her hair swished around her neck did she realize what trouble she was in.

Ulrich was holding her beanie limply, gaping at Yumi's now fully revealed face. Suddenly, he knew with a start who he was dealing with. _The Dark Beauty, Yumi, Yuliana_…the names flashed through his mind like a mantra as he just stared at the stunning girl in a crouch a little ways away from him.

Yumi saw Ulrich's lips form the word "Yuliana" before she flew at him with her last dagger poised in her hand. She ran him into the wall, but his hand closed around her wrist with the dagger upraised, forcing it away from him. She gritted her teeth and pushed back just as hard. Their eyes were glued to each other's, although Yumi couldn't quite see Ulrich's through his sunglasses. Yumi pressed even harder, her face contorting into pretty strain.

Nearby, Jeremie and Aelita had collided into the wall. Aelita was still trying to free herself from Jeremie's relentless grip around her waist. Aelita said something like, "This isn't funny, let go of me, you perv," but the rest was lost as the doors slid open and a multitude of agents that had heard the commotion poured into the room. Yumi froze and let Ulrich slip out from behind her. She knew when she had been outmatched and beaten. Aelita went slack as well, the wheezing Jeremie thankful.

"Put your hands up," someone among the agents said. They all had various sizes of guns drawn, split between pointing at Aelita and pointing at Yumi.

"How cliché," Yumi said, cracking one last joke without a smile as she admitted to herself that finally she had been truly beaten. The Dark Beauty had finally been caught.

**A/N: I have no idea what is going on with the review response thing from authors, so I'll just go the safe route. I hope all you lovely readers and reviewers enjoyed that chapter. I certainly had fun picturing the whole fight scene in my mind's eye; I hope you did too. Pwease drop a review on the way out! I love reviews and reviewers and one on this chapter would be great! Tell me how I did on my action writing, for heaven sakes! Okay? Ciao, and thanks for reading!**


	10. Failure

"I can't believe we are being kept in a cell just like the other stinking, high profile criminals these guys have caught." Aelita looked out of the inch thick glass door and pouted cutely, brushing back a strand of her pink hair.

"I can't believe we got caught at all," Yumi grumbled, glaring daggers at the guard that passed by. The guard seemed to speed up as he caught Yumi's glare.

"True," Aelita said, scowling at the ground. After a moment she added, "And I can't believe that we were supposed to bust into the organization that our other mission partners were working for. I suspected it when we got there, of course, but how coincidental is that?"

Yumi didn't answer as she kept her eyes glued to the walkway outside. She didn't feel like talking. Instead she rubbed her wounded arm, trying to get rid of the dull throb of it that was always present.

What had gone wrong? Yumi finally had decided that her failure in this mission would have been inevitable, unless Jeremiah, Ulrike, and Odd hadn't been there that night. But they were and there would have been no way to defeat them, not with a whole floor or maybe even building full of other agents. And she had never considered Ulrike that big of a threat, that good of a fighter…

Somehow, she found herself worrying. Not exactly _about_ Ulrike, but more like what Ulrike would think of her now. Would he be unspeakably angry? After all, Yumi had lied to him. And they had just started to barely get along too. Or would he be haughty and smug and be like all I-told-you-so? After all, he _had_ caught the infamous Dark Beauty. Yumi started getting angry just at the thought of that. Of course that would be what he was doing. He would go bragging to all his stupid buddies about how he had gotten lucky and caught them in the act…

Suddenly, the muffled beeping of a keypad was heard right outside Yumi and Aelita's cell. Both looked up as one and there stood Ulrike and Odd. Yumi, in spite of herself, had a quick intake of breath. _Speak of the devil…_ Ulrike still had his sunglasses on and looked as stern as ever. Yumi immediately brought up her guard, letting her dislike boil over…whatever she had been feeling.

The door swung open slowly and Ulrike and Odd filled the doorway. Odd said something to the guard, who hesitated. Then Ulrike said loudly and impatiently, "It's not like we can't take them, as we have already proven." Then the guard reluctantly left the reunited four alone.

Yumi looked up at Ulrike and narrowed her eyes at him when he said, "Come with us." However she bit back an instinctive retort of, "Why?" and stood up. Aelita looked at her partner, amazed, for a second but then stood up as well.

Ulrike then leaned into Yumi and said very softly so only she and Aelita could here, "And don't even think of escaping, because it'll just make it harder on you." Yumi glared at him even harder as she and Aelita followed the two men out of the cell.

Yumi let them lead her and her partner for a while, biding her time. She already fully planned to disobey what Ulrike said to her, even though she was curious of where the two men were taking them. However, it wasn't like Yumi to miss out on an opportunity to get free. As soon the four of them had created enough distance between them and a particularly large group of guards, Yumi pounced on Ulrike from behind, hitting him hard on the back of his skull.

Ulrich was knocked forward and he swore while grabbing onto his sunglasses to keep them on. Yumi was already running past him swiftly, Aelita on her tail. He turned to see Odd lying unconscious on the ground, a lumping already forming on the back of his head. Even though he didn't want to, Ulrich yelled for some nearby guards to attend to his knocked out partner. Then he took off at a sprint after the two escapers.

The guards caught onto what was happening pretty quickly. A multitude of them started to give chase after Yumi and Aelita and a lot of them tried to stand in their way and cut them off. Yumi merely smirked at their efforts. She and Aelita plunged right into the thicket of guards, punching, kicking, and smashing left and right. As Ulrich neared, he had to dodge a few guards flying out from the brawl. Then, he himself dove in, searching for the one and only Dark Beauty.

He found her using the butt of one of the guard's guns to knock out another three guards that were busy fighting Aelita at the moment. Immediately, he barreled toward her and knocked her from the main fight, the three unconscious guards dropping to the ground at the same moment. Yumi gritted her teeth and felt her back jar as it hit a metal railing. Immediately she tried ducking to throw Ulrich off. Ulrich already saw it coming, however, and didn't lunge at her, instead letting her spin away.

"Hello, Dark Beauty, otherwise known as Yuliana Imshi," he said, panting and glaring at the beautiful girl before him, tense in her fighter's stance. He hated himself for thinking that she was beautiful.

"Spare me the pleasantries," Yumi said, glaring back harder at Ulrike before her. "I just want to beat you in our rematch and get out of here." Suddenly, she had to turn around to fight off more guards that had come up behind her. Ulrich took advantage of the distraction to grab the Japanese girl around the waist, just as her kick felled the three guards that had come up behind her.

Yumi, outraged that he was so close to her, grabbed one of his hands and yanked it off of her, spinning around at the same time. She found herself face to face with Ulrike, their hands clamped and right in front of the both of them like they were a couple in some twisted soap opera. Yumi hesitated, feeling his warmth seep into her hand, her fingers, her skin…

"I told you not to try and escape," he whispered to her.

Yumi snapped herself out of her immobile state. "Well, too bad," she said calmly. Suddenly she spun around the other way and her foot caught Ulrich full in the face with a spinning back kick. He flew backwards and knocked into some guards that had been approaching them from that direction. At that moment, a pink haired blur leaped over the four men in a heap on the ground and joined Yumi, panting.

"I was finally able to fight them all off. Where do we go now?"

Yumi gestured for the door to their left that was now visible. "The exit," she said, and started to sprint again toward the door. The both of them knocked aside the last few guards that tried to stop them. As they neared the door, it slid open, revealing the blackness and coolness of freedom. Suddenly, just as they reached the door, both of them fell flat on their face.

Insanely angry and bewildered, Yumi pushed herself up quickly to a sitting position and looked back at what had tripped her and her partner. She found a leg stuck out behind her. Then she looked to see that the leg belonged to a grinning Odd.

"And you were so sure you would get away too," he said, giving them both a radiant smile. He was holding an ice pack to the back of his head, but he looked like he was having a jolly good time.

Then both Yumi and Aelita once again found themselves surrounded by pointed guns and guards. Yumi sighed and got back up, admitting defeat once again.

**A/N: Just a quickie. Sorry about there being no dividers and being so short. It's all one scene, so the dividers would have just screwed up the rhythm. Thanks for reading!**


	11. Uncertainty

**R3574UR4N75**

"Okay, so now we are in one of the _high security_ cells. It's about time they realized what a threat we are. Geez…" Aelita muttered as she sat in a different cell with Yumi this time. It had the same glass door except it was thicker and it had blue laser bars running horizontally all along the glass.

Yumi sighed and didn't even glare at the next guard that walked by. That was twice in one day now that Ulrike had stopped her, had made her fail. And she had thought that once was already too many. And what had made her hesitate back there? He was still the same Ulrike. It's not like him knowing who she actually was would change the way things were between them: tense, edgy, and untrustworthy. So why had that happened back there? She didn't say anything and brought her legs up to her chin, thinking.

Then, suddenly, Odd and Ulrike were back at the door. Odd still had the ice pack pressed against the back of his head, but they looked as if nothing had just happened, that they hadn't just made a desperate and unprofessional attempt at an escape. Odd had the nearest guard disarm the lasers and open the door. This time, however, Odd had no such luck in trying to persuade the guard to leave the four in peace. On the contrary, two more guards joined the one that opened the cell and watched the prisoners warily as they were walked out of the cell.

However, as Yumi walked by Ulrike, he still leaned in and whispered to her, "And don't even think of escaping, because it'll just make it harder on you." Yumi stiffened as he walked ahead of her and took the lead again, like last time.

This time, though, she heeded his word. She and her partner followed Ulrich and Odd to a little room nearby which Yumi accurately guessed as an interrogation room, of sorts. They were ushered inside and Odd was able to make the guards wait outside. Then Ulrich and Odd walked in, closed the door behind them, and made the two girls sit on the other side of a lone desk in the room.

"This room is soundproof," Odd said, almost like it was a random fact. "Nobody knows what we are doing and you had better not tell anyone if you even want a remote chance of getting out."

Yumi and Aelita stared at him blankly.

Ulrich took over. "Obviously we now know who you are." As he said this, he looked especially hard at Yumi. "And even though our first goal was to catch you two, now that we have, we realize that we can't keep you captive."

Yumi and Aelita still chose to remain silent.

Odd continued. "We are afraid that this AAA threat that we have been investigating is too powerful. Although we hate to admit it, we will most definitely need your help on that mission. So therefore, we need to find a way to get you out of this place to continue with that mission. We have got a lead in Japan."

Yumi's heart jumped at "Japan" but she remained calm on the outside. When she spoke, she looked directly at Ulrich. "Then why don't you two just bust us out? Or pretend that you have a release for us or something like that? I'm sure you two, of all people, could pull it off."

"The problem with that, Yumi, is that this is our organization. How suspicious would it look if we did that, or worse, tried to bust you guys out and get caught?" Ulrich's words were low and fast as he tried to keep his patience. "Trust me, Odd and I have thought it all through and we know we personally can't get you out."

"But, there maybe someone who can. It all depends on who you know," Odd said, a bit mysteriously, as he smiled at the two girls before him.

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked warily.

"Does anyone else know your true identity? And if there is, narrow it down from those people to the ones that you know can fight well and could be capable of getting you guys out. Then, give me a way to contact them and I'll get them to come and bust you guys out as soon as we can."

"Why am I suspicious?" Yumi asked Odd with an eyebrow raised.

"Do you want to get out or not?" Ulrich said through gritted teeth, giving the two girls a hard glance. Yumi and Aelita gave each other sideways glances and then sat in silence for a moment, each thinking whether they should do it or not.

Finally, at the same time, both of them said, "Sam."

Odd looked puzzled. "Who?"

**4ND**

"Hmm…" Sam frowned at the doors of the gym. The people she had most hoped to see had not come in yet and it was almost late afternoon. This wasn't like them. Usually they came in bright and early under a situation like this. Unless they got caught again. Unless they got caught _for reals_. Out of a nervous habit, she pulled out her ponytail and did it again, brushing stray strands of hair back into her hands. Then she redid the elastics and placed her hands on her hips, frowning.

"Sam!" Theo said from across the gym as he came towards her. "Wanna spar?"

"Not really," she said, eyeing him with distaste. She really didn't want to talk to people right now.

"Do you know where Yumi is?"

"No idea."

"Yeah, I've missed her the past couple of days here. I wonder where she could have got to. I hope she isn't bypassing this place because I got her mad."

"Yeah, well, that's a Yumi thing to do," Sam said flatly, trying to give Theo the hint to go away.

"Well, if you want to spar," Theo said, giving her a little wave goodbye. Then he went off to join the loud banter of some other guys in the far corner. Sam rolled her eyes and went into the girls' locker room, for lack of anything better to do.

_Where are they? _That was what had been going through her head the past half a day. No answer on the cell, no show of face in the gym; it was liked they had disappeared off the face of the earth completely. The next thing she would do have to do was show up at their apartment and barge right in. Sighing, she wound through the rows to her usual locker.

When she got there, unlocked it, and opened it, she found a white envelope that she hadn't put there before. Curious, it distracted her a little from her worried thoughts as she turned it around to see her name written neatly on it in black ink. Curious even more, she ripped open the envelope (trying not to completely ruin it) and took out a piece of folded white paper. She unfolded it and read:

_Dear Samantha,_

_If you would like to meet the guy of your dreams (that's me), go to the restaurant The Purple Asparagus at 8:00 p.m. today. I will be there, waiting for you, with a fresh red rose. Please, don't leave me waiting._

_Love,_

_You'll see_

"This is funny," she said with a grin out loud. Something told her that it was a blaringly obvious practical joke and she shouldn't fall for it and it was no doubt some stupid blind date one of her various friends had found for her or it was just her friends playing a trick on her but…for some reason, she wanted to go. She wanted to see what was up with this "guy of your dreams".

And above all, although she didn't let herself think too much about it, she wanted to see if this was or wasn't a weird and wacky way for Yumi and Aelita to get in contact with her.

**R0535**

Odd waited, just like he said he would, by the entrance to the elegant restaurant The Purple Asparagus with a fresh red rose clutched in his hand. The restaurant was new and "all the rage" at the moment, with couples and groups constantly keeping the doors swinging. Tapping his foot, he checked his watch. Well, she wasn't late yet. She still had three minutes.

And then, he almost choked on his own spit.

Stepping out of one of the newly arrived taxis, was a girl—no, a vision. Her hair was somewhere in between black and brown, leaning toward the darker side, with two red streaks in it on either side of her part. It hung down, perfectly spruced up and pin straight. Her skirt that went modestly to her knees looked like light purple flowing metal, glimmering in the light the restaurant's interior was giving off. The darker color sleeveless purple top was just there. Was just perfect. Was just that Odd hoped beyond hope that she was the one called Sam.

She seemed to be looking for someone as her purple heels clicked onto the sidewalk. Her eyes scanned the perimeter and then they lighted on Odd, making his hopes rise and heart pound. He gave her what he hoped to be a warm smile and then turned to look at his feet. His heart threatened to burst when the sound of clicking heels grew louder and louder.

"So you're the guy of my dreams, eh?" Sam said with a laugh, taking the rose out of Odd's hand with a seductive smile and sniffing it.

Odd laughed nervously. "Yes, yes I am. Do you think I'm at least a tiny bit close?"

"Oh, I think you're more than a tiny bit close," she said, slinking away in front of the glowing doors of the restaurant and turning to look behind her shoulder at her date. "Are we going to eat or what?"

At the mention of eating, Odd became immensely more relaxed. "You bet we are."


	12. Crazy

**C****H4P73R 12  
**_Crazy_  
**  
**

Odd lost control of his mind quickly. After dinner, he found himself looking up at the stars with Sam curled up against him for warmth, his arm around her possessively. Her slender arms were wrapped around his waist in turn, her head lying on his left shoulder.

And yet, the feeling that grew inside Odd slowly became diluted with guilt. He hadn't told her. He hadn't asked her. He hadn't brought up the very thing he came here for and he had been supposed to do that at the restaurant where it was more public and there was less of a chance that she could make a scene. But now, in this deserted park, on this deserted park bench, she could kill him for bringing it up and no one would ever know.

But she wouldn't do that...right?

Odd found himself wondering if she had any weapons with her. Then he slapped himself mentally for even broaching the subject. Of course she didn't…

Taking a steadying, prep breath for what he had and was going to do, he started slowly, "Sam?"

"Mmmm?"

Something stabbed viciously at Odd's heart. She sounded so innocent, so warm, so vulnerable, so unsuspecting…

"There's something I need to talk to you about."

"And what's that?" she said, turning her face so that she was staring right into Odd's eyes. Odd found it harder to breach the subject with her face inches from his. He was tempted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He found himself just staring at her beauty for a couple minutes in silence as she stared back, unafraid to back down. But then he finally drew up enough courage.

"Do you, by any crazy chance, have two friends named Yumi and Aelita?"

The moment disappeared in a flash. Her warmth left his side as she scooted away. "No," she said quickly, too quickly. "Why?"

Sam knew inwardly she had blown it. She wished she could close her eyes, curl up into a fetal position, and sulk. She had been too caught up, too unprepared. Because of some random guy she met on a first date, she had blown her two best friends' dangerous cover. Shit, shit, shit…

The damage already done, Odd decided to try to insert some gentle humor into the situation. "Well, that's too bad. And they trusted and depended on you so much too…"

In a flash, she was standing before him, a small gun pointing right at his heart. His eyes widened in spite of himself and his heart sank; so she had been armed. "What happened to them?" Sam demanded roughly, her arm wavering just a little bit as she looked searchingly into Odd's eyes. "Something must have happened to them for you to know about them."

"Something did," Odd said calmly despite his thumping heart, which was the opposite. "They were caught."

"Damn."

"But you can save them."

"What?"

Still at gunpoint, Odd proceeded to explain very evenly exactly what Sam had to do. She listened attentively, like a student learning from a mentor. At the end, however, she had questions. And she fired them at Odd as if she was shooting him with bullets.

"How do you know all this?"

"I have my ways."

"How did you find me?"

"Courtesy of Yumi and Aelita."

"Didn't they tell you that I'm not exactly the best in this kind of work?"

"I assure you, they assured me. But, you are their only hope. And when that phrase is used, you always know that the situation is not good. Any more questions?"

Sam sighed, letting the gun drop to her side. She closed her eyes, listening to her mind screaming at her to not ask the last question. Too late, it slipped through her lips anyway, laced with hurt and hope, "Was any of tonight real?"

Odd couldn't take it anymore. He got up and swept her into his arms, which she folded into quite willingly. "All of it. All of it was real, Sam," he said quietly, tilting her chin up with a finger to look into her sparkling eyes.

And then he kissed her.

**0P3R4****710N**

Yumi was fighting to stay awake. Unfortunately, it was made harder by the fact that she was doing it all naturally. The fact that they didn't offer coffee to the inmates was a turn off. That left Yumi alone in her fight for sleep. She could fight everything else, just not that.

Yumi shot her partner a look of envy as she slept peacefully on the hard bench opposite her. _Why did I have to volunteer the "keeping watch" thing? If I hadn't, we both would have been fast asleep by now, resting ourselves for another attempt at escape sometimes soon…_

Oh, wait, now she remembered. She was keeping watch for Sam, who was supposed to be their rescuer sometime soon. But then Yumi thought it must have been odd for the guards who walked by every five minutes or so. That she was the only inmate awake at this hour for some reason. Would they be smart enough to suspect something? Maybe it would be better if she fell asleep after all…

She wished drowsily that they had let her keep her watch with its useful digital display. Yumi and Aelita had agreed on switching back and forth between being on guard and sleeping after two hour periods. And since they had both been robbed of their watches when they were being given a weapons search (they thought the watches could have some other discreet capabilities, which they didn't, stupid people), the only way they could tell time was from how many guards walked by.

Yumi hated this.

But she reckoned she only had around five minutes left.

She could stay awake for five more minutes, surely?

But five minutes was such a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long…

**D4RK 834U7Y**

Sam slithered along in the ventilation system as quietly as she could. Her memory wasn't lacking either, and at times it was even better than Yumi's. However, as she neared her drop off spot, she could feel nervousness creeping through her stomach. Yumi was way better than her at what she was supposed to do. Sam knew she could do a mediocre job. But was mediocre good enough?

After counting the other branches she passed by carefully and the turns she made, she came to the spot where she should be able to…there! She could make out a walkway and a cell of some sort to the side of it through the slim metal bars of the vent. That was where she was supposed to go.

Swiftly and deftly, she unscrewed the screws keeping the vent in place and moved it to the side without a sound. Then she took a deep breath, knowing there was really no going back from here, and eased herself down, dropping into a light and very low crouch on the ground below.

Odd had timed it perfectly, as he had memorized the rounds and time intervals of guards just for her break in. Sam could see the last guard that had passed this place turn a corner nearby. She gauged that she had around three to four minutes, just like Odd had told her in the beginning. "That would be plenty of time," he had said.

All the while, Sam had been moving almost plastered to the ground. Odd had said the cell was close by the opening of the vent, something no one had even noticed or taken in stride. Their loss. She found them immediately and almost could feel her heart visibly relax even though she wasn't out of the lurch yet. Both were sleeping soundly, Aelita laying on her side on one bench, and Yumi sitting up with her head leaning against the wall she was sitting up against. They looked so peaceful despite the situation they were in. Sam had a rush of determine to get her friends out.

She whipped her head around now, however. That would have to wait for a while. The next guard was coming up in the darkness, his flashlight swinging casually. Sam retreated into the shadows and waited until the poor guy was directly in front of her before she pounced with a hand over his mouth. Then, as she rendered him unconscious with an expert twist of her fingers in a certain spot, she pulled him back into the shadows.

Moments later, she emerged in the guard's uniform. It was a bit big for her, but she had cinched the belt tight around her waist. She grabbed all her hair in one bunch and twisted it around and around rapidly, creating a tight coil. Then, in a fluid motion, she twisted it around on her head and stuck a chopstick through it roughly, one she had brought just for keeping her bun in place. Feeling much better for the job, she walked back toward Yumi and Aelita's cell, this time upright, with the flashlight on in her hand.

Again, she had four or five minutes. "Plenty of time," Odd had also said, this time with a grin, "for you to get them out…and set the alarm."

Sam couldn't help smiling at Odd's excellent humor. His ways of rescuing people were certainly…unique…to say the least.

She managed to put him out of the front of her mind (with difficulty) and proceeded on with the plan. As soon as she reached her friends' cell, she shined the flashlight through the thick glass and lasers at Yumi's face. Sam waited patiently for Yumi's face to scrunch up with discomfort as she stirred from sleep. She had come up with this part of the plan. She knew that both of them had made themselves light sleepers for obvious reasons.

"Do you _mind_? Put the god damn light out," Yumi said rudely, still in her half asleep state. But Sam had already moved onto Aelita. Sam knew that as soon as Yumi had moved her arm in front of her eyes that she was awake.

As Aelita was groaning softly and stirring, Yumi had come directly up to the glass and glared at the guard without. "You know," Yumi continued in her rude tone, her voice indicating she was already a majority awake, "you are a…"

"…fucking asshole, right?" Sam answered for her softly. Sam saw Yumi's eyes become disoriented and then recognize the familiar voice.

"Sam?" The voice was laced with ill-suppressed hope.

Aelita had woken up already, allowing Sam to move the beam of light to right under her chin, creating the eerie ghost-story-teller sensation. "Boo," she said playfully, with a huge grin.

"Sam, it really is you!" Aelita said quietly, her voice saying that she was obviously very relieved.

"I'm going to get you guys out in a second. Right now you have to go back to pretending you're asleep, but don't really fall asleep." The two "criminals" had already seen this coming. They had resumed their sleeping positions as the next guard approached.

"Hey," the guard questioned Sam suspiciously. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Don't use that tone with me," Sam said, turning around and shining the light of her flashlight directly into the guard's face, causing him to squint from the pain in his eyes. "I'm checking on the most dangerous criminals here. You know, just in case they manage to pull off an escape in the middle of the night."

"That's impossible," the guard scoffed, trying to back up in an attempt to ease the harsh light that was assaulting his eyeballs at the moment.

"You obviously don't know these two. You know the ones I'm talking about? The one so-called Dark Beauty and her partner?"

"I personally think that's a bunch of baloney," the guard said, managing to shield his eyes with his arm. "But I guess it is somewhat of a good idea to check up on them. Just don't miss your interval by too much."

"Yes sir," Sam said dutifully and lowered her flashlight to pool a golden spot on the floor as the nearly blinded guard walked by, muttering unpleasant things.

As soon as he was a considerable distance away, Sam turned back round while turning off the flashlight. She pushed back the heavy sleeve of the guard's uniform and by the light of her digital watch display, she disarmed the lasers and unlocked the door with two series of complex codes she had memorized. Both came away without much noise, and Yumi and Aelita were only too happy to slip out of the cell. They became three stealthy cats in the prison.

"So, now which way do we go?" Yumi asked Sam, who was still standing in the same spot next to the keypad as she was in before.

"The exit," Sam said, as if it was obvious.

"We have to go all the way to the exit?" Aelita asked incredulously. "That's like across the building! Couldn't we just use the vent that you used?" Aelita pointed above her head and only Yumi was the one that looked up. "I saw it when I was pretending to be asleep," Aelita explained with a shrug at Sam, who wasn't paying attention.

"No we can't. That isn't part of the plan." Yumi and Aelita stared at Sam, suddenly questioning her sanity. "But this is," Sam said with a broad grin and slammed her fist into the keypad.

Immediately, the prison blazed in whirring lights and blaring alarms. Guards ran everywhere, as if they were blind mice. Everyone was in chaos and Sam just stood there and grinned as she surveyed her handiwork.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" both Yumi and Aelita screeched at their eccentric friend.

Sam smiled and took off running, calling over her shoulder, "Just follow me!"

**A/N: So I haven't updated this story is almost half a year. I'm so sorry! To ANIMEBUBBLES and to the rest of you used-to-be readers (I hope you still are). If you don't remember ANYTHING of this story, I understand. But I'll try to at least finish it now. School is crazy and I'm working on two other stories, but I'll try my best. Really.**

**Thank you to all the really old reviews and reviewers. I hope you can still give your much loved feedback for such an inconsistent updater. (Ack!) I hope you forgive me. T.T**

**Code Lyoko. Wow. It's been a while. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the chapter (it was long) and until next time...  
**


End file.
